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THE CRIME OF GOVERNMENT
AGAINST THE NEGRO PEOPLE

William L. Patterson/Editor With a Preface by Ossie Davis

We Charge Genocide

(

WE CHARGE

Genocide

THE HISTORIC PETITION TO THE UNITED NATIONS
FOR RELIEF FROM A CRIME OF
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
AGAINST THE NEGRO PEOPLE

INDIANA UNIVERSITY
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Edited by: William L. Patterson; Staff: Richard O. Boyer, Howard
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Preface

by Ossie Davis

This is not the first time the black people of the United States have issued
;i warning. W. E. B. Du Bois himself said it plain in 1900: “The problem of
l he Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.”

We say again, now: We will submit no further to the brutal indignities
being practiced against us ; we will not be intimidated, and most certainly not
eliminated. We claim the ancient right of all peoples, not only to survive
unhindered, but also to participate as equals in man’s inheritance here on
<Mrth. We fight to preserve ourselves, to see that the treasured ways of our
life-in-common are not destroyed by brutal men or heedless institutions.

We Charge Genocide ! indeed we do, for we would save ourselves and our
children. History has taught us prudence — we do not need to wait until the
I hichaus and Belsens and the Buchenwalds are built to know that we arc
•lying. We live with death and it is ours; death not so obvious as Hitler’s
ovens — not yet. But who can tell?

Black men were brought to this country to serve an economy which needed
our labor. And even when slavery was over, there was still a need for us in
i he American economy as cheap labor. We picked the cotton, dug the ditches,
•liined the shoes, swept the floors, hustled the baggage, washed the clothes,

• leaned the toilets — we did the dirty work for all America — that was our
place, the place where the American economy needed us to be.

As long as we stayed in that place — there at the bottom — we were wel-
comed to love and work in America. The murder practiced against us then
was partial and selective. A limited genocide meant not so much to extermi-
nate us — America still had a job for “good 'niggers” to do — as to warn us, to

• orrect us, to use those of us who would not submit as examples of what could
happen to the rest of us. Those who objected to being kept in their “place” at
the bottom were beaten or killed for being uppity. Those who challenged our
i acist overlords, claiming for themselves and for us our rights as men and as
■ itizens, were burned for being insolent; lynched to teach the rest of us
always to stay in our “place.”

But a revolution of profoundest import is taking place in America. Every
year our economy produces more and more goods and services with few T er and
I ewer men. Hard, unskilled work — the kind nobody else wanted, that made

PREFACE

us so welcome in America, the kind of work that we “niggers” have always
done — is fast disappearing. Even in the South — in Mississippi for example —
95 per cent and more of the cotton is picked by machine. And in the North as
I write this, more than 30 per cent of black teenage youth is unemployed.

The point I am getting to is that for the first time, black labor is expend-
able, the American economy does not need it any more.

What will a racist society do to a subject population for which it no longer
has any use ? Will America, in a sudden gush of reason, good conscience, and
common sense reorder her priorities? — revamp her institutions, clean them
of racism so that blacks and Puerto Ricans and American Indians and
Mexican Americans can be and will be fully and meanfully included on an=
equal basis?

Or, will America, grown meaner and more desperate as she confronts the
just demands of her clamorous outcasts, choose genocide? America, of course,
is not an abstraction ; America is people, America is you and me. America will
choose in the final analysis as we choose : to build a world of racial and social
justice for each and for all; or to try the fascist alternative — a deliberate
policy on a mass scale, of practices she already knows too well, of murderous
skills she sharpens each day in Vietnam, of genocide, and final, mutual death.

We Charge Genocide — not only of the past but of the future. And we
swear: it must not, it shall not, it will not happen to our people.

August 17 j 1970 .

Foreword to New Edition

by William L. Patterson

This historic Petition was first presented to the world in 1951. Addressed
to the United Nations it was submitted to that body in Paris, France at the
Palais Chaillott where the Fifth Session of the General Assembly had
gathered. Simultaneously a delegation led by Paul Robeson presented copies
to the office of the Secretary General of the UN in New York. We had two
aims: to expose the nature and depth of racism in the United States; and to
arouse the moral conscience of progressive mankind against the inhuman
l reatment of black nationals by those in high political places.

The Petition called upon the UN to take notice of the fact that even a
< ursory examination would reveal the savage racist policy that determines the
attitude and reaction of city, state and federal governments in their relations
with black nationals. At each of these political levels the human dignity of
Macks is flouted and full enjoyment of their Constitutional rights denied.
lUacks faced institutions of government that were steeped in racism.

The Petition declared that the racism of government was a criminal
policy. It constituted a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, its Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, more specifically the UN Convention for the
Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and the Constitution of the United
States of America.

These racist crimes are also in violation of the most vital canons of inter-
national law. The Petition asserted that if permitted to continue through the
failure of other nations zealously to oppose them the racist crimes committed
in the United States would reduce the Charter to a bad joke to be laughed at
by every bigot and racist in this land. The crimes complained of were a threat
to the national morality, the integrity of a leading world state and therefore
to world peace.

The indictment against these crimes having been drafted, it was necessary
with scrupulous care to adduce concrete evidence of the vicious and i'ntoler-
.ible racist practices on which the Petition was based. That was thoroughly
done. A Summary and Prayer for Relief outlining specific remedial st§ps
followed.

The UN did not respond to the Petition. Profound changes, however, have
taken place in the world since 1951. At the same time, racism has grown

VII

VIII

FOREWORD

consistently more vicious. It now constitutes a basic feature of the drive of
U.S. reaction toward a fascist-like police state.

The UN Human Rights Commission has, in the interim period, debated
the matter of human rights at great length. It has passed numerous Conven-
tions and Resolutions condemning the debasement of human dignity. It has,
however, not leveled this charge of criminality at the United States as it has
at the South African Republic. Yet its conclusions give affirmation to the
indictment against the racist crimes committed in this citadel of the “free
world.”

Twenty years after the submission of this Petition to the UN the charges
then made can be materially enlarged. A characteristic feature of life in the
United States is the murderous brutality toward “colored” citizens in and
out of the ghettoes in which they are forced to live, the use of state troopers to
suppress their democratic demonstrations seeking enjoyment of their inalien-
able and constitutional rights. Coupled with this policy is the increasing use
of black nationals as armed gendarme to force America’s murderous brand of
democracy upon foreign peoples. Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia are proof of
the last allegation.

Civil rights commissions created and mandated successively by Presi-
dents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson to examine into and report on the
economic, political and cultural situation confronting blacks have recorded
massive violation of their rights and dignity. A vast array of statistical
material culled by government agents and private investigators exists reveal-
ing that discriminatory conditions have shortened greatly the life span of
blacks as compared to whites.

Miseducation in ghetto schools is psychologically more disturbing than in
“educational” institutions generally. The misery and squalor of the black
ghetto slums beggar description. A false brand of criminality is constantly
stamped on the brow of black youth by the courts and systematically kept
there creating the fiction that blacks are a criminally minded people. Unem-
ployment and underemployment are infinitely higher among blacks due to
discrimination in hiring policies and the low technical development afforded
their youth. The ghetto has been made a cesspool for those who traffic in
narcotics in a diabolical attempt to destroy the physical being of blacks.

White ideologists proclaim those conditions are as blacks want them to be.
White ideologists skillfully and cunningly twist facts that expose the evils of
racism to enable them to assert the inherent inferiority of blacks. Thus they
seek to give credence to the myths of white superiority. Force and violence
systematically ancT consistently employed to quell the righteous anger of
blacks is justified by calling murder an exercise of “law and order.” Thus the
lies against blacks are propped up ideologically. We have an economy that
dehumanizes those who accept and support it as well as its foremost victims.

In our introduction to the earlier editions of We Charge Genocide , we
wrote: “History has shown that the racist theory of the government of the
U.S.A. is not the private affair of Americans but the concern of mankind
everywhere.”

Life gives proof of the correctness of this statement. It is now historically
necessary and also incredibly easy to submit proof that racism U.S.A. is an
export commodity breeding aggressive wars and threatening the peace of the
world. Life produces that evidence. We submit it.

Again I assert that the wantonly murderous and predatory racist attacks
on Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia are proof. These criminal wars are in-
separably related to the equally criminal murders of rebellious black youth
in Chicago, Illinois, New Haven, Connecticut, Augusta, Georgia and Jack-
son, Mississippi. The crime of these black youth was their color plus their
determination not to accept racism or be intimidated by its force and violence.
The crimes of the racists are the crimes of a desperate class and those it has
dehumanized. The “crimes” of “our” foreign foes are that they want control
of their own destinies and that their lands are rich with raw materials worth
billions to the imperialists.

There are those with jkffitical power who believe that aggressive wars
will force acceptance of their moral bankruptcy, their ideological corruption,
the grievous and incurable economic ills their system sows and their myths
of white superiority. They are wrong. Racism and predatory wars have
ulready sustained major moral defeats at home and abroad. At home and
abroad the end will inevitably be against the racists and neo-colonialists.
History has doomed them to defeat. That is where we come in.

Developing national liberation struggles expose the hypocrisy of the
colonial powers who are members of the UN. It is now obvious that not all
those who signed that historic Charter in San Francisco in 1945 were deter-
mined to build an international institution geared to peace, freedom and the
equality of large and small nations.

It might be well to remind the reader who takes this Petition up that the
American delegation sent to San Francisco in 1945 to establish the United
Nations was headed by a noted imperialist, Edward R. Stettinius who was
at the time the U.S. Secretary of State, and Tom Connallv, a U.S. Senator
from Texas who was an infamous racist. To regard either of these men as
representative of the nation as such is to ignore their racism, their contempt
for the poor and their condoning of terror.

Neither they nor those for whom they signed the Charter had any love
for peace or freedom. President Roosevelt at an earlier moment had called
them “economic royalists.” Theirs was the divine right of “robber barons.”
These were men of the breed of those responsible for the “Cold War.” They
were men steeped in bigotry and racialism. Not a “colored” man was among

x FOREWORD

the U.S. delegates who signed the Charter. Not a member of the working
class was there.

But the delegation to the UN could not have signed the Charter of the
United Nations without aim or purpose. It was to be for those they repre- 1
sented an institution through which, with the aid of their quislings in Asia
and Latin America, they could further their “Cold War” program and
export their racist policies. Three events intervened : the unprecedented
growth and development of the Socialist bloc of peace-seeking states, the
national liberation struggles in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United
States, and the democratic struggles of organized labor in the “free world.” I

The UN is today not the same organization that in 1945 was sired by a
“free world” wanting a new war against the Socialist countries and mothered
by a New World desirous of peace. Through the moral, economic, political 1
and ideological power of the new emerging world of socialism, through the
national liberation movements of Africa, Asia and Latin America, both the
composition of the UN and its character are changing.

To further expose the hypocrisy of the U.S. rulers it is historically neces-
sary that the black nationals and freedom-loving American whites return
again to the UN with the charge of genocide against black, brown, red and
yellow, and a Prayer for relief. American racism can be brought to the dock
in the Councils of the UN through mass action.

It is politically infantile to argue that another appeal to the UN can or
will force the United States to become an adherent of the aims, principles and
purposes of that international body. Such an appeal can, however, mobilize
worldwide action against genocide. We must not forget the words uttered by
Justice Robert H. Jackson in the trial of the Nazi war criminals in Nurem-
berg, Germany. We quote:

“How a government treats its own inhabitants generally is thought to be
no concern of other governments or of international society. Certainly few
oppressions or cruelties would warrant the intervention of foreign powers.
But the German mistreatment of Germans is now known to surpass in mag-
nitude and savagery any limits of what is tolerable by modern civilization.
Other nations by silence would take a consenting part in such crimes. These
Nazi persecutions, moreover take on character as international crimes be- i
cause of the purpose for which they were undertaken. . . .”

We say that this applies to racism and the racists in the United States. The
mistreatment of black nationals by this white ruling class surpasses in savagery
the limits of this “free economy.”

There is no question but that the treatment of blacks in the United States
violates all provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But,
that it violates the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Geno-
cide, that racism U.S.A. is genocidal in character is ofttimes questioned by

FOREWORD xi

liberals and intellectuals. Even a cursory examination of the question re-
veals that:

( 1 ) Killing of members of the group is notoriously true.

(2) The psychological impact of those murders and of jimcrow and
segregation in their subtle and covert forms does extreme mental
harm to the group.

(3) America’s racism is bringing about in part the physical destruction
of the group and its span of life reveals that fact.

(4) Measures to prevent birth within the group are practiced in several
states.

'The reports of Presidential commissions on civil rights reveal the genocidal
character of racism U.S.A. Failure to act upon them verifies the content of
l hr indictment and indicates that if there is to be fundamental change it must
mine through the actions of the people.

It has recently been alleged that racism has split the nation along the
< olor line. We the people can mend the split.

A nation divided against itself is at the mercy of demagogues, and the
enemies of freedom and of a democracy of the people, for the people and/or
by them.

History dictates the cure : a people united in struggle for the peace of the
world and their own security. This is written with the hope that it will help
affect this unity. Our country has a multi-national population. It is up to

I lie people to give it a democracy embracing all who stand for equality of
rights and opportunities. In our unity in struggle lies the fate of our country
and its people. In our country’s future lies the peace and freedom of millions

I I the people control tlffet future. History calls for an end to genocidal rela-
tions at home and abroad. This Petition is called for by history and the
people are its bearers.

August 1970

ARTICLE II, CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND
PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE:

Adopted December 9, 1948

Contents

“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts

committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical A Preface by Ossie Davis

racial or religious group, as such: I Foreword to New Edition by William L. Patterson

(a) Killing members of the group;

INTRODUCTION

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Part I
Part II
\part III

Part IV

THE OPENING STATEMENT
THE L^W AND THE INDICTMENT
THE EVIDENCE
SUMMARY AND PRAYER

ARTICLE III:

Part V APPENDIX

“The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide”

(

vii

xiv

i93

200

xii

xiii

Introduction

Out of the inhuman black ghettos of American cities, out of the cotton!
plantations of the South, comes this record of mass slayings on the basil
of race, of lives deliberately warped and distorted ~by the willful crea
tion of conditions making for premature death, poverty and disease. )
is a record that calls aloud for condemnation, for an end to these terrible
injustices that constitute a daily and ever-increasing violation of tht
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of thr
Crime of Genocide.

It is sometimes incorrectly thought that genocide means the complex
and definitive destruction of a race or people. The Genocide Conven
tion, however, adopted by the General Assembly of the United NationJ
on December 9, 1948, defines genocide as any killings on the basis 0
race, or, in its specific words, as “killing members of the group.” An)
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, ethnic 0;
religious group is genocide, according to the Convention. Thus, th<
Convention states, “causing serious bodily or mental harm to member)
of the group” is genocide as well as “killing members of the group ”

We maintain, therefore, that the oppressed Negro citizens of thi
United States, segregated, discriminated against and long the target 0!
violence, suffer from genocide as the result of the consistent, conscioui
unified policies of every branch of government.

The Civil Rights Congress has prepared and submits this petition ti
the General Assembly of the United Nations on behalf of the Negro peo|
pie in the interest of peace and democracy, charging the Government
of the United States of America with violation of the Charter of thi
United Nations and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishmen
of the Crime of Genocide.

We believe that in issuing this document we are discharging an hil
toric responsibility to the American people, as well as rendering a servk
of inestimable value to progressive mankind. We speak of the Ameri
can people because millions of white Americans in the ranks of labo
and the middle class, and particularly those who live in the souther!

xiv

INTRODUCTION xv

•tuics and are often contemptuously called poor whites, are themselves
differing to an ever-greater degree from the consequences of the Jim
1 K'w segregation policy of government in its relations with Negro citi-
♦*ns. We speak of progressive mankind because a policy of discrimina-
tion at home must inevitably create racist commodities for export abroad
must inevitably tend toward war.

We have not dealt here with the cruel and inhuman policy of this
government toward the people of Puerto Rico. Impoverished and reduced
a semi-literate state through the wanton exploitation and oppression
by gigantic American concerns, through the merciless frame-up and
imprisonment of hundred of its sons and daughter, this colony of the

• olrrs of the United States reveals in all its stark nakedness the moral
1' inkruptcy of this government and those who control its home and
loieign policies.

I listory has shown that the racist theory of government of the U.S.A.
r. not the private affair of Americans, but the concern of mankind every-
where.

I I is our hope, and we fervently believe that it was the hope and aspira-
tion of every black American whose voice was silenced forever through
i". mature death at the hands of racist-minded hooligans or Klan terror-
lltl, that the truth recorded here will be made known to the world; that
m will speak with a tongue^of fire loosing an unquenchable moral cru-
M<lr, the universal response to which will sound the death knell of all

• •< 1st theories.

Wc have scrupulously kept within the purview of the Convention on
iIm Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide which is
krld to embrace those “acts committed with intent to destroy in whole
"i m part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such.”

Wc particularly pray for the most careful reading of this material by
d ■<>«: who have always regarded genocide as a term to be used only where
l hr acts of terror evinced an intent to destroy a whole nation. We fur-
1 h« r submit that this Convention op Genocide is, by virtue of our avowed
•• « rptance of the Covenant of the! United Nations, an inseparable part

• •I 1 lie law of the United States of America.

According to international law, and according to our own law, the
' nocide Convention, as well as the provisions of the United Nations
( h. nter, supersedes, negates and displaces all discriminatory racist law
"M 1 lie books of the United States and the several states.

I be Hitler crimes, of awful magnitude, beginning as they did against
dir heroic Jewish people, finally drenched the world in blood, and left

• iccord of maimed and tortured bodies and devastated areas such as
mankind had never seen before. Justice Robert H. Jackson, who now sits

• •pnii the United States Supreme Court bench, described this holocaust

XVI

INTRODUCTION

to the world in the powerful language with which he opened the Nurem-
berg trials of the Nazi leaders. Every word he voiced against the mon-
strous Nazi beast applies with equal weight, we believe, to those who are
guilty of the crimes herein set forth.

Here we present the documented crimes of federal, state and municipal
governments in the United States of America, the dominant nation in
the United Nations, against 15,000,000 of its own nationals— the Negrq
people of the United States. These crimes are of the gravest concern to
mankind. The General Assembly of the United Nations, by reason of the
United Nations Charter and the Genocide Convention, itself is invested
with power to receive this indictment and act on it.

The proof of this fact is its action upon the similar complaint of the
Government of India against South Africa.

We call upon the United Nations to act and to call the Government
of the United States to account.

We believe that the test of the basic goals of a foreign policy is
inherent in the manner in which a government treats its own nationals
and is not to be found in the lofty platitudes that pervade so many
treaties or constitutions. The essence lies not in the form, but rather, in
the substance.

The Civil Rights Congress is a defender of constitutional liberties,
human rights, and of peace. It is the implacable enemy of every creed,
philosophy, social system or way of life that denies democratic rights or
one iota of human dignity to any human being because of color, creed,
nationality or political belief.

We ask all men and women of good will to unite to realize the objec-
tives set forth in the summary and prayer concluding this petition. We
believe that this program can go far toward ending the threat of a third
world war. We believe it can contribute to the establishment of a people’s
democracy on a universal scale.

But may we add as a final note that the Negro people desire equality
of opportunity in this land where their contributions to the economic,
political and social developments have been of splendid proportions, and
in quality second to none. They will accept nothing less, and continued
efforts to force them into the category of second-class citizens through
force and violence, through segregation, racist law and an institutional-
ized oppression, can only end in disaster for those responsible.

Respectfully submitted by the Civil Rights Congress as a service to
the peoples of the world, and particularly to the lovers of peace and
democracy in the United States of America.

— William L. Patterson
National Executive Secretary
Civil Rights Congress

The Petitioners

Alzira Albaugh, New Mexico
Mike Babinchok, Ohio
< iharlotta A. Bass, California
Isadore Begun, New Yon \

Richard O. Boyer, New Yor\
Maurice Braverman, Maryland
Louis E. Burnham, New York
I Iarold Christo ffel, Wisconsin
(diaries Collins, New York
Ralph Cooper, New Jersey
Dr. Matthew Crawford, California
George Crockett Jr., Michigan
Wendell Phillips Dabney, Ohio
John Daschbach, Washington
Benjamin J. Davis Jr., New York
Carmen Davis, Tennessee
I .ester Davis, Illinois
Angie Dickerson, South Carolina
Dr, W. E. B. Du Bois, New York
Roscoe Dunjee, Oklahoma
Jack Dyhr, Oregon
Collis English, New Jersey

Howard Fast, New York
Winifred Feise, Louisiana
James Ford, New Yor\

Josephine Grayson, Virginia
Abner Green, New York
Yvonne Gregory, New Yor\
Aubrey Grossman, New York
William Harrison, Massachusetts
Harry Haywood, New York,
James R. Herman, Louisiana
Rev. Charles A. Hill, Michigan
William Hood, Michigan
W. Alphaeus Hunton, New Yor\
Dorothy Hunton, New Yor\
Arnold Johnson, Pennsylvania
Dr. Oakley' C. Johnson, Louisiana
Claudia Jones, New York
John Hudson Jones, New York
Rev. Obadiah Jones, Missouri
Leon Josephson, New York,
Albert Kahn, New York
Mary Kalb, Virginia
Maude White Katz, New York

Stetson Kennedy, Florida
Kay Kerby, Florida
Elizabeth Keyser, California
Yetta Land, Arizona
Elizabeth Lawson, New Yor\
Amy Mallard, Georgia
Doris Mallard, Georgia
James Malloy, New Yor\

Larkin Marshall, Georgia
Rosalee McGee, Mississippi
Arthur McPhaul, Michigan
Bessie Mitchell, New Yor\

Russell Meek, New Yor\

Thelma Meites, Connecticut
Anna H. Morgan, Ohio
Lewis Moroze, New Jersey
George Murphy Jr., New Yor\
Andrew Nelson, Louisiana
Jerry Newson, California
Josephine Nordstrand, Wisconsin
Louise Thompson Patterson, N, Y.
William L. Patterson, New Yor\
Sally Peek, District of Columbia
Pettis Perry, New Yor\

John Pittman, New Yor{

Eslanda Goode Robeson, Connectic
Paul Robeson, Connecticut
Paul Robeson Jr., New Yor\
Margarite Robinson, California
Elaine Ross, New Yorf{

Nat Ross, New Yor\

Ida Rothstein, California
Geneva Rushin, Georgia
Millie Sal wen, New Jersey
Anne Shore, Michigan
Ferdinand Smith, New Yor\

Leon Straus, New Yor\

Lumir J. Subrt, Wisconsin
Mary Church Terrell, Dist. of Colu
James Thorpe, New Jersey
Decca Treuhaft, California
Robert Treuhaft, California
Paul Washington, Louisiana
Abe Weisburd, New Yor\

Wesley Robert Wells, California
Claude White, Hawaii
Rev. Eliot White, New Yor\
Horace Wilson, New Jersey
Elsie Zazrivy, Ohio

PART I

The Opening Statement

A Review of the Case and an Offer of Proof, giving something
of the scope and historical background of the genocide being
committed against the Negro people of the United States.

To the General Assembly of the United Nations:

Ink responsibility of being the first in history to charge the government
! i he United States of America with the crime of genocide is not one
\ our petitioners take lightly. The responsibility is particularly grave when
uir/x'ns must charge their own government with mass murder of its
"'vn nationals, with institutionalized oppression and persistent slaughter

• •I i he Negro people in the United States on a basis of “race,” a crime
•bhorred by mankind and prohibited by the conscience of the world as

• * pressed in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the

< nine of Genocide adopted by the General Assembly of the United
Millions on December 9, 1948. ^

Genocide Leads to Fascism and to War

I! our duty is unpleasant it is historically necessary both for the welfare

• •I 1 lie American people and for the peace of the world. We petition as
\iucrican patriots, sufficiently anxious to save our countrymen and all
mankind from the horrors of war to shoulder a task as painful as it is
important. We cannot forget Hitler’s demonstration that genocide at
I *"i ne can become wider massacre abroad, that domestic genocide develops
1 1 11 (i the larger genocide that is predatory war. The wrongs of which we

"'•plain are so much the expression of predatory American reaction

• •"I its government that civilization cannot ignore them nor risk their

• "iitinuance without courting its own destruction. We agree with those

• tubers of the General Assembly who declared that genocide is a matter
•I world concern because its practice imperils world safety.

Ihii if the responsibility of your petitioners is great, it is dwarfed by the
■ .possibility of those guilty of the crime we charge. Seldom in human
"•iiiils has so iniquitous a conspiracy been so gilded with the trappings
•I n spectability. Seldom has mass murder on the score of “race” been so
"" lified by law, so justified by those who demand free elections abroad

GENOCIDE

even as they kill their fellow citizens who demand free elections at home.
Never have so many individuals been so ruthlessly destroyed amid so
many tributes to the sacredncss of the individual. The distinctive trail
of this genocide is a cant that mouths aphorisms of Anglo-Saxon juris*
prudence even as it kills.

The genocide of which we complain is as much a fact as gravity.
The whole world knows of it. The proof is in every day’s newspaper^
in every one’s sight and hearing in these United States. In one form or
another it has been practiced for more than three hundred years although
never with such sinister implications for the welfare and peace of the
world as at present. Its very familiarity disguises its horror. It is a crime
so embedded in law, so explained away by specious rationale, so hidden
by talk of liberty, that even the conscience of the tender minded is some
times dulled. Yet the conscience of mankind cannot be beguiled fron
its duty by the pious phrases and the deadly legal euphemisms with whic
its perpetrators seek to transform their guilt into high moral purpose.

Killing Members oj the Group

Your petitioners will prove that the crime of which we complain is in
fact genocide within the terms and meaning of the United Nations Con
vention providing for the prevention and punishment of this crime. Wc
shall submit evidence, tragically voluminous, of “acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial oi
religious group as such,” — in this case the 15,000,000 Negro people of the
United States.

We shall submit evidence proving “killing members of the group,” in
violation of Article II of the Convention. We cite killings by police, kill
ings by incited gangs, killings at night by masked men, killings alwayi
on the basis of “race,” killings by the Ku Klux Klan, that organization
which is chartered by the several states as a semi-official arm of govern
ment and even granted the tax exemptions of a benevolent society.

Our evidence concerns the thousands of Negroes who over the yean
have been beaten to death on chain gangs and in the back rooms ol
sheriff’s offices, in the cells of county jails, in precinct police stations and
on city streets, who have been framed and murdered by sham legal form*
and by a legal bureaucracy. It concerns those Negroes who have been
killed, allegedly for failure to say “sir” or tip their hats or move aside
quickly enough, or, more often, on trumped up charges of “rape,” but in
reality for trying to vote or otherwise demanding the legal and inalienable
rights and privileges of United States citizenship formally guaranteed
them by the Constitution of the United States, rights denied them on
the basis of “race,” in violation of the Constitution of the United States
the United Nations Charter and the Genocide Convention.

THE OPENING STATEMENT

Economic Genocide

We shall offer proof of economic genocide, or in the words of the Con-
vention, proof of “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
miI» ulated to bring about its destruction in whole or in part.” We shall
pinve that such conditions so swell the infant and maternal death rate

• ml the death rate from disease, that the American Negro is deprived,
when compared with the remainder of the population of the United
•laics, of eight years of life on the average.

lurther we shall show a deliberate national oppression of these

• >,000,000 Negro Americans on the basis of “race” to perpetuate these
'conditions of life.” Negroes are the last hired and the first fired. They
*n< forced into city ghettos or their rural equivalents. They are segre-
gated legally or through sanctioned violence into filthy, disease-bearing
I lousing, and deprived by law of adequate medical care and education.

I mm birth to death, Negro Americans are humiliated and persecuted, in
violation of the Charter and the Convention. They are forced by threat of
violence and imprisonment into inferior, segregated accommodations,

• mo jim crow busses, jim crow trains, jim crow hospitals, jim crow
- bools, jim crow theaters, jim crow restaurants, jim crow housing, and
•hi. illy into jim crow cemeteries.

Wc shall prove that the object of this genocide, as of all genocide, is
1 !•«• perpetuation of economic and political power by the few through
'be destruction of political protest by the many. Its method is to demoral-
i r and divide an entire nation; its end is to increase the profits and
unchallenged control by a reactionary clique. We shall show that those
u sponsible for this crime are not the humble but the so-called great, not
1 be American people but their misleaders, not the convict but the robed
l ,,( Ige, not the criminal but the police, not the spontaneous mob but

• •iganized terrorists licensed and approved by the state to incite to a
Unman holiday.

We shall offer evidence that this genocide is not plotted in the dark
Inn incited over the radio into the ears of millions, urged in the glare of
public forums by Senators and Governors. It is offered as an article of
I mb by powerful political organizations, such as the Dixiecrats, and

• Id ended by influential newspapers, all in violation of the United Nations

• b.irter and the Convention forbidding genocide. **

This proof does not come from the enemies of the white supremacists
bui from their own mouths, their own writings, / their political resolu-

• inns, their racist laws, and from photographs of their handiwork. Neither
Miller nor Goebbels wrote obscurantist racial incitements more volumi-
nously or viciously than do their American counterparts, nor did such
incitements circulate in Nazi mails any more freely than they do in the

• • 11 i Is of the United States.

6 GENOCIDE

Conspiracy to Genocide

Through this and other evidence we shall prove this crime of genocide
is the result of a massive conspiracy, more deadly in that it is sometima
“understood” rather than expressed, a part of the mores of the ruling
class often concealed by euphemisms, but always directed to oppressing
the Negro people. Its members are so well-drilled, so rehearsed over thr
generations, that they can carry out their parts automatically and with j
minimum of spoken direction. They have inherited their plot and theii
business is but to implement it daily so that it works daily. This impl$
mentation is sufficiently expressed in decision and statute, in depressed
wages, in robbing millions of the vote and millions more of the land, and
in countless other political and economic facts, as to reveal definitively tht
existence of a conspiracy backed by reactionary interests in which art
meshed all the organs of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial brancho
of government. It is manifest that a people cannot be consistently killed
over the years on the basis of “race” — and more than 10,000 Negroes hav{
so suffered death— cannot be uniformly segregated, despoiled, impove#
ished and denied equal protection before the law, unless it is the resull
of the deliberate, all-pervasive policy of government and those win
control it.

Emasculation of Democracy

We shall show, more particularly, how terror, how “killing member!
of the group,” in violation of Article II of the Genocide Convention, hai
been used to prevent the Negro people from voting in huge and decisiv
areas of the United States in which they are the preponderant population,
thus dividing the whole American people, emasculating mass movement*
for democracy and securing the grip of predatory reaction on the federal
state, county and city governments. We shall prove that the crimes ol
genocide offered for your action and the world’s attention have in far
been incited, a punishable crime under Article III of the Convention
often by such officials as Governors, Senators, Judges and peace officer*
whose phrases about white supremacy and the necessity of maintaining
inviolate a white electorate resulted in bloodshed as surely as more direo
incitement.

We shall submit evidence showing the existence of a mass of American
law, written as was Hitler’s law solely on the basis of “race,” providing
for segregation and otherwise penalizing the Negro people, in violatioi
not only of Articles II and III of the Convention but also in violation oi|
the Charter of the United Nations. Finally we shall offer proof that ||
conspiracy exists in which the Government of the United States, ill
Supreme Court, its Congress, its Executive branch, as well as the variou
state, county and municipal governments, consciously effectuate politic

THE OPENING STATEMENT 7

Inch result in the crime of genocide being consistently and constantly
1'iucticed against the Negro people of the United States.

The Negro Petitioners

Many of your petitioners are Negro citizens to whom the charges herein
inscribed are not mere words. They are facts felt on our bodies, crimes
indicted on our dignity. We struggle for deliverance, not without pride
ni our valor, but we warn mankind that our fate is theirs. We solemnly
1 Ifc la re that continuance of this American crime against the Negro peo-
!•!« of the United States will strengthen those reactionary American forces

• diving towards World War III as certainly as the unrebuked Nazi
1 niocide against the Jewish people strengthened Hitler in his successful
drive to World War II.

We, Negro petitioners whose communities have been laid waste, whose
l*< 'Mies have been burned arid looted, whose children have been killed,

I iosc women have been raped, have noted with peculiar horror that
llw genocidal doctrines and actions of the American white supremacists
1 1 4 v<* already been exported to the colored peoples of Asia. We solemnly
"■urn that a nation which practices genocide against its own nationals
"My not be long deterred, if it has the power, from genocide elsewhere.
W I'ite supremacy at home makes for colored massacres abroad. Both
I' vral contempt for human life in a colored skin. Jellied gasoline in

• hi ra and the lynchers’ faggot at home are connected in more ways than
•I mi both result in death by fire. The lyncher and the atom bomber are

• ' lilted. The first cannot murder unpunished and unrebuked without
«" encouraging the latter that the peace of the world and the lives of mil-
l"*iis are endangered. Nor is this metaphysics. The tie binding both is

"iiomic profit and political control. It was not without significance that
" was President Truman who spoke of the possibility of using the atom
1 'ml) on the colored peoples of Asia, that it is American statesmen who
I 'i.He constantly of “Asiatic hordes.”

“Our Humanity Denied and Moc\ed”

W e Negro petitioners protest this genocide as Negroes and we protest
" *'s Americans, as patriots. We know that no American can be truly
inr while 15,000,000 other Americans are persecuted on 4 he grounds of
•me,” that few Americans can be prosperous while 15,000,000 are delib-
'.iicly pauperized. Our country can never know true democracy while
•Millions of its citizens are denied the vote on the basis of their color.

Hut above all we protest this genocide as human beings whose very
'•"inanity is denied and mocked. We cannot forget that after Congress-
•"•lu Henderson Lovelace Lanham, of Rome, Georgia, speaking in the
b ills of Congress, called William L. Patterson, one of the leaders of the

GENOCIDE

THE OPENING STATEMENT

Negro people, “a God-damned black son-of-bitch,” he added, “We gotti
keep the black apes down.” We cannot forget it because this is the am
mating sentiment of the white supremacists, of a powerful segment cl
American life. We cannot forget that in many American states it is |
crime for a white person to marry a Negro on the racist theory that
Negroes are “inherently inferior as an immutable fact of Nature.” Th<
whole institution of segregation, which is training for killing, education
for genocide, is based on the Hitler-like theory of the “inherent inferiority
of the Negro.” The tragic fact of segregation is the basis for the state
ment, too often heard after murder, particularly in the South, “Why !
think no more of killing a n r, than of killing a dog.”

We petition in the first instance because we are compelled to speak b)
the unending slaughter of Negroes. The fact of our ethnic origin, of whicl
we are proud — our ancestors were building the world’s first civilizations
3,000 years before our oppressors emerged from barbarism in the forest*
of western Europe — is daily made the signal for segregation and murder
There is infinite variety in the cruelty we will catalogue, but each case has
the common denominator of racism. This opening statement is not thr
place to present our evidence in detail. Still, in this summary of what is t<
be proved, we believe it necessary to show something of the crux of 0111
case, something of the pattern of genocidal murder, the technique of in
citement to genocide, and the methods of mass terror.

Our evidence begins with 1945 and continues to the present. It gaim
in deadliness and in number of cases almost in direct ratio to the surgr
towards war. We are compelled to hold to this six years span if this docu
ment is to be Trough t into manageable proportions.

The Evidence

There was a time when racist violence had its center in the South
But as the Negro people spread to the north, east and west seeking t(
escape the southern hell, the violence, impelled in the first instance by eco
nomic motives, followed them, its cause also economic. Once most ol
the violence against Negroes occurred in the countryside, but that wan
before the Negro emigrations of the twenties and thirties. Now there v
not a great American city from New York to Cleveland or Detroit, froir
Washington, the nation’s capital, to Chicago, from Memphis to Atlant
or Birmingham, from New Orleans to Los Angeles, that is not disgrace
by the wanton killing of innocent Negroes. It is no longer a sectiona
phenomenon.

Once the classic method of lynching was the rope. Now it is the police
man’s bullet. To many an American the police are the government,
certainly its most visible representative. We submit that the evidence

• •^gests that the killing of Negroes has become police policy in the
11 n 1 led States and that police policy is the most practical expression of
government policy.

Our evidence is admittedly incomplete. It is our hope that the United
1 J.i lions will complete it. Much of the evidence, particularly of violence,
gained from the files of Negro newspapers, from the labor press,

I mm the annual reports of Negro societies and established Negro year
linoks. A list is appended.

Hut by far the majority of Negro murders are never recorded, never
I imwn except to the perpetrators and the bereaved survivors of the vic-
n m. Negro men and women leave their homes and are never seen alive

• r. iin. Sometimes weeks later their bodies, or bodies thought to be theirs
m<l often horribly mutilated, are found in the woods or washed up on the
•Imre of a river or lake. This is a well known pattern of American cul-
nirc. In many sections of the country police do not even bother to record

• In murder of Negroes. Most white newspapers have a policy of not pub-
lishing anything concerning murders of Negroes or assaults upon them.
These unrecorded deaths are the rule rather than the exception — thus
"in evidence, though voluminous, is scanty when compared to the
mmality.

Causes Celebres

We Negro petitioners are anxious that the General Assembly know of

• »ur tragic causes celebres , ignored by the American white press but known
nevertheless the world over, but we also wish to inform it of the virtually
unknown killed almost casually, as an almost incidental aspect of insti-
imionalized murder.

We want the General Assembly to know of Willie McGee, framed on
perjured testimony and murdered in Mississippi because the Supreme

• "iirt of the United States refused even to examine vital new evidence
proving his innocence. But we also want it to know of the two Negro
- hildren, James Lewis, Jr., fourteen years old, and Charles Trudell, fifteen,

• Natchez, Mississippi who were electrocuted in 1947, after the Supreme
Court of the United States refused to intervene.

We want the General Assembly to know of the martyred Martinsville
'•even, who died in Virginia’s electric chair for a rape they never com-
mitted, in a state that has never executed a white man for that offense.
Hut we want it to know, too, of the eight Negro prison&s who were shot
-Imvn and murdered on July n, 1947 at Brunswick, Georgia, because they
if fused to work in a snake-infested swamp without boots.

We shall inform the Assembly of the Trenton Six, of Paul Washington,
ilir Daniels cousins, Jerry Newsom, Wesley Robert Wells, of Rosalee

GENOCIDE

THE OPENING STATEMENT

Ingram, of John Derrick, of Lieutenant Gilbert, of the Columbia, Ten
nessee destruction, the Freeport slaughter, the Monroe killings — all
important cases in which Negroes have been framed on capital charge!
or have actually been killed. But we want it also to know of the typical
and less known — of William Brown, Louisiana farmer, shot in the ba<
and killed when he was out hunting on July 19, 1947 by a white gai
warden who casually announced his unprovoked crime by saying, “I jusil

shot a n r. Let his folks know.” The game warden, one Charles Ven*

trill, was not even charged with the crime.

Typical Cases

We cite some typical cases from the voluminous evidence. Each repro
sents a part of the pattern of genocide. This pattern repeats itself through*
out the nation, south and north, rural and urban. It is a pattern of gov-
ernment-directed and sanctioned genocide. The following are typical 0!
police killings:

Henry Gilbert, 42, was beaten to .death in the Harris County, Georgia
jail in May, 1947. That was in the South.

But in the north, Beverly Lee, 13, was shot and killed in Detroit,
Michigan on October 12, 1947 by Patrolman Louis Begin. Mrs. Francii
Vonbatten, of 1839 Pine Street, Detroit, testified she saw Lee and another
boy walking down the street when Begin’s squad car approached. She
heard an officer say “Stop, you little son-of-a-bitch,” and then she heard a
shot. The officer was cleared by Coroner Lloyd K. Babcock.

Roland T. Price, 20-year-old war veteran, was shot and killed in
Rochester, New York, by six patrolmen who fired twenty-five bullets
into his body just after he had viewed the Bill of Rights and the Declare
tion of Independence on the “Freedom Train.” He went into a restaurant
where he complained he had been short changed. Patrolman William
Hamill was called, drew his gun, forced Price outside, where he was
joined by five other officers. All began shooting. All were cleared.

Versie Johnson, 35, a saw mill worker of Prentiss, Mississippi, was shot
to death in August, 1947 after he fled when a white woman raised the cry
of rape. Three white officers, members of a posse that tracked Johnson
down, were arrested and charged with manslaughter. They were exoner-
ated.

Raymond Couser was shot and killed by Patrolman Frank Cacurro on
Montrose Street in Philadelphia, on November 16, 1947. Eyewitnesses
said they saw the patrolman with drawn revolver stalking Couser as he
walked down the street, Couser apparently unaware that he was being
followed. The patrolman said he thought Couser was armed and had
been called to the vicinity because of a quarrel in the Couser home.

I otiser was not armed. The patrolman received no punishment.

* it arles Fletcher, also of Philadelphia, was shot and killed on Nov-
ember 16, 1947 by Patrolman Manus McGettingan who claimed he killed
hint after receiving a call about a prowler. Fletcher, who had no police

II curd, had worked for ten years at the Exide Battery Company.

1 iiarles Curry, 23, was slain by Patrolman Nolan O. Ray in Dallas,
1 1 nas, on December 17, 1947 on a bus. Ray, in civilian clothes, had
mlrred a Negro sitting beside him to move. The Negro passengers com-
1 l imed and Ray jumped to Kis feet, drew his revolver, and ordered all
I Jrgroes “to take their hands out of their pockets.” When Curry did not
limply swiftly enough, Ray shot and killed him. Ray was dismissed from

• I 'i lorce and indicted for murder.

George Thomas, Negro youth, was shot and killed by a Kosciusko,
Mississippi patrolman who claimed Thomas tried to escape after being
m* listed on February 2, 1948.

A Negro prisoner, on May 23, 1948 in Augusta, Georgia, was beaten
i" death by a prison guard when he refused to work in a snake-infested
pitch.

I'oy Cyril Brooks, of Gretna, Louisiana, was shot and killed on Febru-
*4' v 27, 1948, by Patrolman Alvin Bladsacker. Brooks was a prominent
-- ide unionist. He was involved in an argument with a bus driver when
hUlsacker pulled him off the bus and killed him.

James Tolliver, 40, of Little Rock, Arkansas, was beaten to death in
1 I u nary of 1948 by Patrolman Blaylock. Tolliver was trying to help a
•i* miken woman when Blaylock came up behind him and struck him on
•lif head. He died almost instantly.

J M i in Johnson, 50, was slain by Birmingham, Alabama, police who
l*i lined he was resisting arrest on March 29, 1948.

Alma Shaw, 42, was slain by Birmingham police on April 19, 1948
(kvlio claimed she was resisting arrest.

Marion Franklin Noble, 19, was slain by Birmingham police on April

• , 1948 who said he resisted arrest.

I Willie Johnson was shot to death, on May 3, 1949, by two Brunswick,

• "’nrgia policemen who claimed that “he was looking at a house sus-
1'ii'iously.” Johnson, 58, had been a resident of Brunswick for fourteen
u ns, was a county employee and a deacon of St. Paul’s Baptist Church.

Hubert J. Evans, 86 years old, a patriarch of Norfolk, Virginia was shot
mm. I seriously wounded on December 12, 1950 by Patrolman E. M. Mor-
n who said the old man assaulted him.

I >anny Bryant, 37, of Convington, Louisiana, was shot and killed in
1 ' t'>l)er of 1948 by Policeman Kinsie Jenkins after Bryant refused to
i- move his hat in the presence of whites.

Merman Glasper, 30, was shot and killed in Bryan County, Georgia,

GENOCIDE

THE OPENING STATEMENT

during the week of January 2, 1949 by Corporal Dee E. Watson, GeorM
State Trooper. Glasper had been arrested on suspicion of stealing a ho|
Sheriff E. W. Miles said that the shooting was “an accident.”

Charles Phifer was shot in the back and killed in the home of fl
stepmother in the Bronx, New York City, by Patrolman Eugene Stasilli
on January 16, 1949. The patrolman claimed that he shot Phifer — in il
back — in “self defense.”

George Waddell was shot in the back and slain in his Brooklyn, Nc*
York home by Brooklyn police on February 18, 1949. Police entered I
home without a warrant and with no offense charged against Waddc'
They claimed they were looking for a gambling game when they forctj
entry into Waddell’s home. No evidence of gambling was found.

Ike Crawford, 29-year-old prisoner in the Richmond County, Georf
jail was beaten to death on June 5, 1948 by Guards David L. Turn*
Horace Wingard and Alvin Jones. The men were indicted for “pris#
brutality.” A coroner’s jury, however, reported that Crawford died of
“liver disease.”

Other Race Murders

Not all murders or assaults are by police. Some result from segregation
from living in fire traps, or from denying badly injured Negroes enti
into hospitals because of their color. Others result from the constant df
laration and determination of white supremacists that Negroes have I.
rights that a white man is bound to respect. The following cases H
typical:

Mr. and Mrs. O’Day Short and their two little girls were bum
to death two days before Christmas, 1945, in a fire of incendiary orij
set by persons who did not want them to move into a “white” neighbo
hood in Fontana, California. They had received threatening notes ai
the police informed them they were “out of bounds.” While the faiflil
was away, the house was sprayed with an inflammable chemical. Wh<
a match was lighted upon the family’s return, there was an explosiil
and all four were fatally burned.

Three Negro children, Ruby Nell Harris, 4, Mary Burnside, 8, at
Frankie Thurman, 12, of Kosciusko, Mississippi were slain on Janut
8, 1950 by three white men, Leon Turner, Malcom White and Wind]
Whitt, who also raped Pauline Thurman, 17, and shot Thomas Har|
father and stepfather of the children. Harris died of his wounds. Turn
and Windel Whitt received life sentences. Malcolm White was senteno
to ten years imprisonment.

Matthew Avery, 24, student at North Carolina A & T College dj
after an auto accident on December 8, 1950 when he was refused adifl
tance to Duke Hospital at Durham. He died on hour later.

I kroy Foley died in Breckinridge County Hospital, Hardinsburg, Ken-
"i l y in August, 1950, after he and two other Negroes lay on the floor
♦lure hours, refused medical attention for injuries in an automobile acci-
llrm. Betty Graves, a nurse in the hospital, said they were refused treat-
♦iirnt “because we don’t have facilities for colored people.” A Negro
Itftbulance service was called to transport the men out of the hospital. It
tvAM seventy miles away and did not arrive for three hours. Jesse Law-
ir iti e, its driver, said, “the blood had not even been wiped from their
HfiCI.

| i ssie Jefferson, of Jackson, Georgia, was slain on his farm on June 12,
">.|H by two men who accused him of not moving his wagon over to the
"i lit quickly enough when they wanted to pass him.

I u is Hudson, 50, of Nacogdoches, Texas, was shot and killed by a
I < nas constable, one Heppenstead, who had beaten and imprisoned Hud-
*• 'it's son during the week of March 21, 1948 because the boy did not
iiUress him as “sir.” The elder Hudson was killed when he came to court
li* .mange bail for his son.

I Iosea W. Allen, of Tampa, Florida was shot and killed on September
••• 1948 when he asked to be served a bottle of beer. Victor Pinella, the
|m 1 q m ictor of the tavern, explained that he killed Allen because he did not
I "'1 mit Negro customers. He was freed.

Kaiah Nixon, 28-year-old war veteran, was shot and killed in the
I'M '.mce of his wife and children on September 6, 1948 after he had voted
m (hat day’s primary election in Montgomery County, Georgia. A jury
i" -il M. L. Johnson, the killer.

Willie Palmer, was shot five times and critically wounded by J. C.
Ihudford on June 24, 1950, because he sat in the white section of a
" uurant operated at the Knox Glass Company in Jackson, Mississippi.

• liuifT Troy Mashburn said the shooting was in “self defense.”

Robert Mallard, 37-year-old Negro salesman, was shot and killed in
I vns, Georgia, on the night of November 20, 1948, after he had led a
onpaign defending the right of Negroes to vote. His car was stopped and
imbushed by three cars set up as a road block. He was killed in the
I", sc nee of his wife, Mrs. Amy Mallard, his child, and two cousins. Mal-
Ud had been warned not to vote in the Democratic primary election.

( ) ns Newsom, of Wilson, North Carolina, 25-year-old war veteran and
(hi father of three children, was shot and killed during the week of April
1 1 <>/}H by N. C. Strickland, gas station operator. Strickland killed New-
•111 after the Negro asked that he service his car with brake fluid he had
i".i purchased.

Km- Nathan Roberts, 23-year-old war veteran, was shot and killed in^
’’Hilis, Georgia, when he failed to say “yes sir,” to a white man in May
"• 11)47. A student at Temple University, Philadelphia, on the GI Bill of

i 4 GENOCIDE

Rights, Roberts was visiting relatives when he was killed. No one wii
tried for the murder.

Willie Pittman, a taxi driver, was found slain and mutilated 0
May 28, 1947 on a country road near Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Hi
legs and arms had been cut off, his body split open, and his head smashi

Hosea Carter, of Sandy Hook, Mississippi, was found dead on May I
1948 of a shotgun blast in the chest. Deputy Sheriff T. W. White sai
Carter had been killed by a white man “whose name I don’t remember
He added, however, that the murderer had done “what any decent whin
man would Live done,” because the white man had found Carter tryify
to enter a home.

Mrs. May Noyes, 22-year-old pregnant mother of three children wi
shot and killed on May 4, 1947 by a white man, Albert Huey, at Canaj
Hill, Alabama. Huey was running amuck shooting up the Negro con'
munity after an argument with a Negro war veteran, when he accosto
Mrs. Noyes and shot her in the hip. She slumped to the street. Hur
kicked her, shouting “Get up!” She staggered to her feet and started 1 j
run but Huey shot her in the back. She crawled on to the porch of |
white woman, Mrs. Enory Reeves, where she died. Huey was release
on $1000 bail and no charges were ever placed against him.

Charles Smith was slain by Marvin Matthews and Wyatt Adams i
November 23, 1947 while they were terrorizing the Negro community |
Lillington, North Carolina. At the same time they shot and wouncki
Daniel Lee Brasford and attacked four other Negroes. A Harnett Count
jury freed the men after deliberating twenty-seven minutes.

Wesley Thomas, 51, a Negro woodchopper, was shot in the back an
killed fciy W. D. Thompson, 21-year-old white, on June 30, in Louisiana
Thomas had engaged in an argument that morning with a white farmr
from whom he was asking back pay for work performed. A posse wf
looking for him when Thompson found him and shot him as he wa
running towards his house. “He tried to run into the house and I li
him have it,” Thompson said — and was exonerated on the grounds tha
there were weapons in the house towards which Thomas was running. I

Elmore Bolling, 30, was shot and killed in December, 1947, in Lown
desboro, Alabama. Clark Luckie, a white man who claimed that tf
Negro had insulted his wife over the telephone, was arrested for th
murder but was later released.

Calib Hill, prisoner in the Irwinton, Georgia jail, was taken from hi
cell on May 30, 1949 by two white men, according to Sheriff Georw
Hatcher, who said they picked up the jail door keys from his desk. Hil
was beaten, then shot to death. His body was found three miles from town

Dr. M. A. Santa Cruz, prominent Negro dentist of Pulaski, Virginia
was beaten to death on February 6, 1951 by two white hoodlums wfo

THE OPENING STATEMENT 1 5

were molesting two Negro girls. He was killed when he attempted to
protect them.

Morris Scott was slain during the week of October 7, 1950 in Linden,
Alabama, by William R. Welch and George Baker. Welch admitted
firing the shotgun blast that killed Scott. County Sheriff T. Wilmer
'•hields declined to disclose a motive for the killing.

Perhaps this fragmentary list may serve to indicate the extent of mass
murder on the basis of “race.” Each slaying to no small degree terrifies
1 mire Negro communities. For that is its purpose. It is not uncommon
lor the inhabitants of such communities to spend days and nights hiding
m the woods and swamps after a slaying. These crimes are not uncon-
nected with the Negro’s fight for the right to vote, as guaranteed him by
1 lie Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the
United States. If a Negro has no right to life, he clearly has no right
i" vote. If a Negro may die for asking for a bottle of beer, something
similar may happen if he asks for a raise or back pay or tries to organize
into trade unions or go on strike. In the South the Negro’s fight for the
ballot is the central issue. Around it revolve most of the incitements to
genocide and virtually all of the widespread terrorist activity of the
Ktt Klux Klan.

Incitement to Genocide

Incitement takes many forms but the common denominator of every
I m m is the openly avowed determination that the Negro shall not have
1 In* rights guaranteed him under the Constitution of the United States,
1 lie United Nations Charter and the Genocide Convention. Thus, James
I Byrnes, Governor of South Carolina, former justice of the Supreme
1 ourt of the United States, former Secretary of State, former Senator,
inently declared that South Carolina would abolish the state’s school
system rather than abolish segregation in the schools. Openly flouting
•he basic law of the United States and the United Nations, he not only
incited to genocide but reinforced a system which trains thousands of

• hildren in white supremacy, guaranteeing genocide and its protagonists
m 1 lie future. When in another recent statement, the former Secretary
"I State — so solicitous while in that office for free elections everywhere

• 1 vc in his home — declared that South Carolina would “find a way” to
'•lain its white primary elections, he incited genocide against any
American Negro who tried to avail himself of his legal right to vote in

»uth Carolina. That this is not rhetoric will be proven by numerous
"i stances of Negroes killed or assaulted when they attempted to vote
'Iter white citizens had been incited to murder and other violence against

• !' r Negro people by such statements as those of Byrnes.

GENOCIDE

We shall prove, moreover, that such incitements by high government
officials are the rule rather than the exception in many parts of the South.
We shall show Governor Herman Talmadge of the State of Georgia incit-
ing genocide over the radio on October 22, 1949 when he said, speaking of
Negro efforts to enforce the Constitution, “We will fight them in the
counties and the cities. . . . We intend to fight hand to hand with all
our weapons, and we will never submit to one inch of encroachment
on our traditional pattern of segregation.” We shall show numerous
other such instances on the part of Governor Talmadge and other officials
of the State of Georgia, submitting in the Appendix a detailed case history
revealing how genocide is used in Georgia to deprive American Negroes
of their right to vote. The Georgia case history is typical of the record
of such violence throughout the South.

We shall submit for your attention incitements to genocide, some-
times delicately phrased but always unmistakable in their meaning and
tragic in their result, by former Governor J. Strom Thurmond of South
Carolina, Governor Fielding M. Wright of Mississippi, and former Gov-
ernor Dixon of Alabama. We shall show how these officials and others
formed a conspiracy in 1948 to deprive the Negro people of their vote
through violence. Its guise was a political party, the so-called States Rights
or Dixiecrat movement. Its successful purpose was the liquidation of
President Truman’s demagogic appeal for civil rights. We shall submit
excerpts from the official speakers’ handbook of the States Rights move-
ment, approved by Governors Thurmond, Wright and Dixon and punctu-
ated throughout with incitements to violence. Typical of the incitements i
is that on page 52 which reads:

“In many countries throughout the South a few thousand whites operate
farms, business and industry and furnish employment to hundreds of thou-
sands of negroes. If these negroes voted and elected their kind of official.^,
which would happen if they voted, there would not be a business or industry
operating in the county 12 months after they took over — unless violence was S
resorted to for the protection of business and industry and farming against ]
the improvident acts of incompetent and corrupt administration . Certainly I
no right thinking American wants to wrec\ any section of our country? I
(Italics ours.)

Not even the highest tribunals of the American state, the Senate and
the House of Representatives, are exempt, as we shall show, from these ]
incitements to genocide. For example, in June of 1948 Senator Allen J. I
Ellender of Louisiana, told the -Senate of the United States: “The more J
freedom and the more privilege a Negro is given, the more he will abuse
that privilege. He will run wild and do violence to the society in which
he moves.” It is manifest, we submit, that after hearing Senator Ellender
some white Americans might think it their duty to prevent Negroes from

THE OPENING STATEMENT 17

doing “violence to the society” in which they move by seeing to it that
iliey do not get “more freedom” and “more privilege.”

By means of this spurious rationale^ genocide is made into civic virtue.

I o view such expressions as philosophic abstractions or political huckster-
ing is to ignore the violence and death that are the daily fare of the Negro
people as a direct result. Senator Walter F. George of Georgia, wrote in
.1 moment of candor in 1936: “Why apologize or evade? We have been
very careful to obey the letter of the Federal Constitution — but we have
l>een very diligent and astute in violating the spirit of such amendments
.md statutes as would lead the Negro to believe himself the equal of
1 he white man.* And we shall continue to conduct ourselves in that way.”

Klan Terror

With statesmen justifying genocide, it remains for others in the scores
«>! vigilante organizations that dot the South, chartered and encouraged,
is we shall show, by the various states, to carry out the crime more
specifically. Great inflammatory anti-Negro meetings in which thousands
nl robed members participate are common throughout the South par-
licularly during election years. A Reverend Harrison, known as the
"Railroad Evangelist,” told a meeting of the Atlanta Ku Klux Klan, for
< xample, on November 1, 1948, “In God’s sight it is no sin to kill a
n r, for a n r is no more than a dog.” At the same meeting, accord-

ing to witnesses, one “Itchy-Trigger-Finger” Nash, an Atlanta patrolman
in whom the Klan had given an award for killing more Negroes than any
nl his colleagues, expressed the hope that he would “not have to kill all
1 he Negroes in the South by myself. I want some help from my brother
Klansmen.”

lypical of the membership oaths of these vigilante organizations is
i hat of the United Sons of Dixie, which was incorporated in Tennessee,

• »ii December 28, 1943 operated as a wartime front organization for
1 lie Ku Klux Klan. The oath included: “Will you fight to make the U.S.A.

1 white man’s country? These United States of America must, and shall
»><\ a white man’s country for white people, the master race. We must
keep it that way. . . .” At one point in a ceremony for new members,
.iccording to a report filed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
president of the United Sons of Dixie said, “We want 15,000,000 members
in the United States, and every one of them with a good gun and plenty

• I ammunition. Eventually we must eliminate the Negroes from this
country.”

I ypical, too, of speeches heard on many street corners in Southern
1 1,1 es > was that of Homer Loomis, Jr., leader of the Columbians, a racist
vigilante organization chartered by the state of Georgia, on the corner

• •I Stovall Street and Flatshoals Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia, on October 1,

GENOCIDE

1946. “We don’t want anybody to join/’ he said, “who’s not ready to get
out and kill n rs and Jews.” Two days later at a meeting of the Colum-

bians at i98!4 Whitehall Street, Atlanta, Loomis said, “There is no end

to what we can do through the ballot. If we want to bury all n rs in

the sand, if we will organize white Gentiles politically to combat the Jew

and n r blocs, we can pass laws enabling us to bury all n rs in the

sand.” During the same year, Loomis told the Imperial Kloncilium of the
Ku Klux Klan, East Point Klavern, Georgia, “We propose that all

n rs in America be shipped back to Africa with time-bombs on board

the ship as an economy measure.”

Other racist terrorist organizations include, as we shall show, the Amer-
ican Gentile Army, sometimes called the Commoner Party, and J. B.
Stoner’s Anti-Jewish Party. But by far the largest is the Ku Klux Klan,
chartered in most of the Southern states as well as elsewhere. Its philoso-
phy, so reminiscent of Hitler’s, is exemplified by the statement of its
Imperial Wizard, Hiram W. Evans, writing in “Negro Suffrage — Its
False Theory”:

“The first essential to the success of any nation, and particularly of any
democracy, is a national unity of mind. Its citizens must be One People
(Ein Volk). They must have common instincts and racial and national pur-
pose. ... We should see in the negro race a race even more diverse from
ourselves than are the Chinese, with inferior intellect, inferior honesty, and
greatly inferior industry. . . . His racial inferiority . . . applies equally to all
alien races and justifies our attitude toward Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus. . . .
No amount of education can ever make a white man out of a man of any
other color. It is a law on this earth that races can never exist together in
complete peace and friendship and certainly never in a state of equality,”

Operating on this principle thousands of hooded, masked Klansmen,
robed in white, ride through the countryside, killing, flogging, shooting,
wrecking, pillaging. Their activities are winked at by what passes for
democratically elected legal authority, when not initiated by it. Police
officers themselves often participate in their activities. The target of their
organized terror is almost always the Negro people — although with
increasing frequency members of the Klan are hired to prevent the union-
ization of workers to keep wages down. The terror organized by the
Klan, with the cooperation as we shall prove, of the various states, is a
powerful mechanism in preventing almost two-thirds of those eligible to
vote under the law and the Constitution in seven Southern states from
actually voting. It is the major instrument of terror in preventing political
democracy in Southern United States, thus perpetuating in power, as we
shall show, a minority clique and the corporate interests they represent,
not only locally but also nationally in the Federal Congress.

THE OPENING STATEMENT

Mental Harm

Our evidence includes many instances of psychological terror and masc
miimidation on the basis of “race” particularly as perpetrated by the Klan.
These, we maintain, contravene that part of the Genocide Convention
lorbidding the causing of “serious mental harm to members of the group.”
Some indication of this terror is manifest in the following cases:

Cyclops Roper of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan reported on April 1, 1946
•hat he had conferred with gubernatorial candidate Eugene Talmadge on
ways and means of keeping Georgia Negroes from voting and that Tal-
madge had replied by writing the word “Pistols” on a scrap of paper.

In a radio address from Jackson, Mississippi, on June 22, 1946, Senator
Theodore Bilbo of that State announced that he was a Klansman. He
< ailed upon “every red-blooded American in Mississippi to resort to any
means at their command” to prevent Negroes from voting. After a good

• leal of violence against those Negroes who tried to vote, Bilbo was
ic-elected.

On March 2, 1948, 300 robed Klansmen at Wrightsville, Georgia,
paraded around the courthouse square and burned a cross there on elec-
liun eve. Said Dragon Green: “Whenever the Negro takes his place at the
•ade of the white man blood will flow in the streets of the South.”

On March 20, 1948? at Jeffersonville, Georgia, crosses were burned on
die courthouse lawn on Saturday and Sunday nights before the county
primary day. Small coffins labeled “KKK” were placed on the doorsteps
nl those Negroes who it was thought might try to vote.

At Columbus, Georgia, KKK white supremacy leaflets were dropped
I mm an airplane over Negro districts just before the primary election.

On June 30, 1948 at Macon, Georgia, a cross was burned before the
Imme of Larkin Marshall, Negro Progressive Party candidate for the

• Tited States Senate. He also received notes threatening him if he did
not withdraw his candidacy.

On July 23, 1948 at Stone Mountain, Georgia, three thousand robed
Klansmen, convening in cars from all parts of Georgia* and fourteen other
Mates, inducted seven hundred new members under a 30-foot fiery cross.

I Icrman Talmadge was extolled by Dragon Green as “the only man in
1 lie gubernatorial race who believes in white supremacy.” Green again
predicted that blood would flow in the streets if Negroes were given
dicir Constitutional rights.

( )n August 9, 1948, on the eve of the Democratic primary at Columbia,
South Carolina, the Klan burned fiery crosses in front of a Negro church
where the mechanics of voting were being explained.

At Nashville, Tennessee, postal authorities on November 2, 1948 began

GENOCIDE

an investigation of hundreds of threatening notes received by Negroes
and signed by the Klan warning them not to vote.

In Florida on November 3, 1948 a Klan motorcade burned fiery crosse;
in Negro residential districts from Mount Dora to Miami.

A Klan procession, including fifty motor cars, paraded through the
streets of Brighton, Alabama, on December 22, 1948, to intimidate Negroes,
A similar demonstration for the benefit of the Negro people took place
on the same date in Bessemer, Alabama.

Forty automobiles filled with hooded Klansmen warned the student
body of Talladega College in Alabama on January 17, 1949 not to partici-
pate in the Alabama Students Conference on Civil Rights.

Mrs. J. M. Sweat, a Negro school teacher, received a threatening note
from the Ku Klux Klan on January 24, 1949 when she moved into a
white neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia. The note contained a bullei
and said, “You Are Not Smart.”

Police provided an escort for a Klan demonstration bearing an electric
cross and Klan flags in Tallahassee, Florida on January 27, 1949.

At Denmark, South Carolina on February 9, 1949, 269 hooded Klan;
men held an anti-Negro demonstration, parading through the rain, carry-
ing red flares.

Klan activities, and their mob counterparts, are not confined to the
South. Organized anti-Negro violence, often under police protection, has
spread its pattern in the north

At Union, New Jersey, on February iq, IQ4Q, a five-foot cross was
burned before a Neero school after a meeting protesting the death sen-
tence against the so-called Trenton Six Negroes.

At Peek ski 11, New York, on August 27, TQ4Q a cross was burned dur-
ing the assault of veterans upon those attending a concert.

This psychological and phvsical terror carried out bv the Ku Klux
Klan and other organized groups against the Negro people deters mil-
lions of them, as it is intended to, from voting or otherwise exercising
their rights under the Constitution of the United States and the Charter
of the United Nations. Under the weight of these calculated demonstra-i
tions the Negro people, particularly in the South, live their lives in fear
of violence for allegedly overstepping one of the many prohibitions in the
extra-legal white supremacy code enforced by the Klan— which often
operates as a “state within a state.” If Negroes sometimes avoid phvsical
violence, thev never escape from “serious mental harm directed against
the group,” in violation of Article IT of the Genocide Convention.

THE OPENING STATEMENT

Denial of Right to Vote

If millions of Negroes are prevented from voting through fear, thou-
sands are brave enough to attempt it and risk the fate of Robert Mallard,
Isaiah Nixon, and Macio Snipes, tragic instances of Negroes killed in
< Georgia for voting in accordance with their legal right under the Consti-
mtion. Typical of the experiences suffered by Negro citizens in attempt-
ing to vote were those testified to before a Senate Investigating Committee
inquiring into the election of Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi in
1946. Despite such testimony as the following, the Senate Committee
mled that no terror had occurred during the election.

Etoy Fletcher, a veteran of the armed forces of the United Nations,
irstified that on June 12, 1946 when he attempted to register for voting at
hrandon, Mississippi, he was beaten and flogged with a heavy wire cable.
I Ic was threatened with death, he said, if he made another attempt to
vote.

Richard Daniel, a veteran of the armed forces of the United States,
irstified that on July 2, 1946 at Gulfport, Mississippi, he was struck on the
head by two election officials when he attempted to register for voting
nul then was arrested and beaten unconscious in his cell.

Dr. William Bender, a minister from Touhaloo College, Touhaloo,
Mississippi, testified he had been kept from the polls on Election Day
hy two white men who insulted him and another white man who met
him at the polls with a pistol.

Joseph Parham testified that the sheriff had told him on election day,
You’re too old to get in trouble” and that white men asked him, “What
I ind of flowers do you want?”

The Reverend C. M. Eiland, minister of Louisville, Mississippi, testi-
fied that two white men stopped him at the polls and told him they
didn’t want Negro soldiers (veterans) to vote and if they allowed him to
ole, the soldiers might vote, too.

J. D. Collins, of Greenwood, Mississippi, testified that the Mayor of
Crcenwood and two other leading citizens had called on him and A. C.
Montgomery, giving them a list of Negro veterans and urging them to
isit them and tell them not to vote.

Witnesses testified before the Senate Committee that terror had kept
-ill but 2500 of the state’s potential 500,000 Negro voters away from the
polls on Election Day. Mississippi’s tactics are common to other Southern
Mates where the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitu-
tion of the United States are honored in the breach but not in the observ-
ance. Your petitioners venture the hope that this will not be the case

GENOCIDE

with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the- Crime I
of Genocide adopted by the General Assembly.

The “Blac\ Belt”

The primary locale of the genocide being practiced against the Ameri-|
can Negro people, both historically and geographically, is the so-called
Black Belt of the southern United States, where some five million Negroes
live, a third of the Negro population of the United States. The Black Belt
forms a crescent through twelve southern states, from Virginias tide-
water into North Carolina, South Carolina, lower and central Georgia
and Alabama, into Florida, engulfing Mississippi and the Louisiana delta
and wedging into eastern Texas and southeast Tennessee, with its western
anchor in southern Arkansas. Here the Negro population, historically a
majority, is larger than the total population of such countries as Switzer-
land or Norway.

Because this area was the core of chattel slavery, at least legally abol- J
ished some eighty-six years past, and because it has the greatest concen-
tration of the plantation system of sharecropping and peonage, those rem-
nants of slavery, the Black Belt is the chief source of the racist contamina-
tion that has spread throughout the United States. Here the American
citizen who is a Negro is virtually without political or economic rights of
any kind. He is bound to the soil by a system of virtual peonage and un-
ending debt. He is paid for the most part, not in wages but by a portion
of the crop he raises. The constant threat of violence prevents him from
asking an accounting from the landlord when, as is often the case, at the
end of the season he is told no money is due him. Many black men have
been killed for demanding such an accounting.

Most sharecroppers work from dawn to dark for a living which verges
on starvation. Often these black Americans are not even able to quit or
move not only because of lack of money but because of ancient debtors’
laws which make it a crime to move while owing money, a condition that
is constant for sharecroppers forced to buy at extortionate prices on
credit in plantation stores. Much of the law of those states in the Black
Belt, moreover, is directed towards guaranteeing an American peasantry ]
without political or human rights available to work the land without pay
sufficient for proper livelihood.

The Problem Agrarian in Origin

“The Negro question in the United States is agrarian in origin,” writes
Harry Haywood in his authoritative Negro Liberation .

“It involves the problem of a depressed peasantry living under a system of
sharecropping, riding boss supervision, debt slavery, chronic land hunger and
dependency — in short the plantation system, a relic of chattel slavery.

THE OPENING STATEMENT

2 3

“It presents the curious anomaly of a virtual serfdom in the very heart of
dir most highly industrialized country in the world. Slave-whipping barbarism
i he center of ‘enlightened’ twentieth century capitalist culture— that is the

• on- of America’s race problem.”

The South’s plantation system, concealed by the United States census
through listing as farms” those tracts operated by sharecroppers, is
fused on cotton as the chief money crop. In 1944 the crop, produced for

• hr world market in successful competition with the “coolie” labor of Egypt
-ind India, brought one and a half billion dollars. The growing and mar-
I « iing of this crop by the comparatively few large land-owners who domi-
n. tie this phase of American agriculture rests on large scale credits
idvanced, in the last analysis, by the country’s largest banks. These banks

• 11 turn are dominated by the Morgans, Rockefellers, du Ponts, Mellons
ind associated financial oligarchies who dominate the South not only
lli rough command of credit for its chief money crop but through even

• 1 mre intimate control of the chief industries of the South. Thus, they
pinfit not only from the exploitation of the sharecropper but from the
lie pressed industrial wages that result from this exploitation.

Arthur F. Raper, well known authority on the American South,

• In lares that the Black Belt plantation system is an incubus weighing on
white workers as well as Negro and guaranteeing that industrial wages
" main low. He writes:

l he Black Belt sketches the section of the nation where the smallest pro-
pnrtion of adults exercise the franchise and it defines the most solid part of

• lie Solid South. . . . Human relations in Atlanta, Birmingham, Montgomery,
Memphis, New Orleans and Dallas are determined largely by the attitudes of
1 he people of the Black Belt plantations from which many of their inhabitants,
white and Negro, came. The standard of living in these cities does not escape
the influence of this area of deterioration. No real relief can come to the
legion so long as the planter, who wants dependent workers, can confound
the situation by setting the white worker over against the black worker, and

lon g as industrialist, who wants cheap labor, can achieve his end by
puling urban labor against rural labor. There are literally millions of farm
laborers in the Black Belt who are eagerly waiting an opportunity to work for
\\ ages even smaller than are now being paid textile and steel workers in
Mmthern cities.”

Genocide for Profit

I hus the foundation of this genocide of which we complain is eco-
nomic. It is genocide for profit. The intricate superstructure of “law and
order” and extra-legal terror enforces an oppression that guarantees profit.
This was true of that genocide, perhaps the most bloody ever perpetrated,
which for two hundred and fifty years enforced chattel slavery upon the
American Negro. Then as now it increased in bloodiness with the mili-

24 GENOCIDE

tancy o£ the Negro people as they struggled to achieve democracy for
themselves. It was particularly bloody under slavery because the Negro
people never ceased fighting for their freedom. There were some two hun-
dred and fifty years of chattel slavery in the United States.

The genocide that was American slavery, the killing of part of the
group so that the remainder could more readily be exploited for profit,
resulted in two wars. The first was the aggression against Mexico in
1846 seeking more territory for the expansion of slavery. The second was
the Nineteenth Century’s deadliest* war — the Civil War of the states. The
American Civil War (1861-1865) was a revolutionary war in which the
American people destroyed the slavocracy, that minority of slaveholders
who had controlled the country and its government for generations. In
the wake of this conflict, a rising industrialism, then the dominant and
most revolutionary current in American life, joined with four million
liberated slaves and the poor whites of the South to impose its democracy
on the former slavocracy, giving the Negro the right to vote and to
participate in the South’s political life. I

The War Amendments — The Historical Background

It was during this progressive period, before industry had pyramided
into monopoly, and in an effort to complete the revolutionary struggle,
that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution
were passed, to assure full and unimpeded rights of citizenship to the
Negroes. The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified on July 28, 1868,
the Fifteenth on March 30, 1870. If these constitutional safeguards were
enforced, instead of being effectively abrogated by administrative and
legislative action and inaction — backed by perverse judicial decisions of
the United States Supreme Court — it is unlikely that this petition would
be necessary.

The Fourteenth Amendment provides . . . “No State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. . . .”

The Fifteenth Amendment asserts, “The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States,
or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servi- (
tude.” It adds that “The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.” The Federal Government’s chief legal
arm, the Department of Justice, holds that Congress has passed no
enabling legislation permitting it to move for the enforcement of these
laws, Theron Lamarr Caudle, Assistant Attorney General and head of its

THE OPENING STATEMENT 25

( liminal Division of the Department of Justice, explicitly declaring in
i •).}(> that “the federal government is powerless.” 1

Reconstruction

I'or a short time the Federal Government under the Republican Party
it * ve force to these Amendments. Democracy flourished. A free public
'bool system was established for the first time in the South. Thousands

• •I Negroes joined with democratic white officials to govern and admin-

• Mcr states, cities, and counties, serving as legislators, mayors, tax assessors,
members of school boards, and peace officers. Twenty-three Negroes
were elected by the Southern people to the United States Senate and

• lie House of Representatives, thirteen of them being former slaves. All
innnants of slavery, all forms of segregation and discrimination were
abolished by laws which for a short time were enforced.

The Republican Party, however, then the nation’s dominant party and

• Ik instrument of a Northern industry fast becoming trustified, deserted

• lir Negro people in 1876. They made a political “deal” with Southern
Democrats which made the Republican, Hayes, President in return for
K‘ving a free hand in the South to the former slaveholders. This politi-

• il deal merely formalized the alliance of northern industry and South-
all bourbons to put down the growing resistance of labor and the
I ai mer to the grasping power and wealth of monopoly. Southern Bour-
bons were obviously safer allies for defending the status-quo than the
progressive Negro-white alliance in the South.

I he Negro people fought back chiefly through the Populist parties that
opposed the Wall Street trusts through the eighties and nineties of the
I isi century. But their fight became more hopeless against the increased
I'ower of American monopoly. Terror was unleashed against them at
borne— -there were 1,955 recorded lynchings from 1889 through 1901,
according to the minimal count of Tuskegee Institute. Side by side
"Mit terror unleashed abroad, as American imperialism entered the
international arena by subjugating the Filipino, Puerto Rican and Cuban
peoples and reduced many Latin-American countries to economic and
|M)Iitical vassalage.

The Growth of Terror

It was during this period of American imperialist adventure abroad
'!' at most of the state Iaws segregating Negroes and illegally denying
'hem the vote were enacted in the Southern states. Disfranchisement laws
»vcre passed in Louisiana in 1898, in North Carolina and Alabama in
11)0 1 ’ Vir ginia, 1902, Georgia, 1908, Oklahoma, 1910. They but codified

IVuple, n" w^York, Nati ° na ' ASS ° Ciati0n fOT AdVanCemCm 0f

GENOCIDE

THE OPENING STATEMENT

what was taking place in life. They disfranchised poor whites as well as
Negroes, thus breaking the Populist movement. It was during this
period, too, in which Negroes still had a remnant of political power,
that the spurious charge of rape was elevated into an institution, an extra-
legal political instrument for terrorizing all Negroes, particularly those
demanding their rights under the Constitution. With the charge of rape,
reaction sought to justify its bestiality and to divorce from the Negroes
those white allies who had helped to carry out the democratic practices
of Reconstruction.

In November, 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Colonel A.M.
Wadell said in North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News &
Observer 2 that “we are resolved” to win the elections in Wilmington,
North Carolina, “if we have to choke the current of Cape Fear with
carcasses. The time for smooth words has gone by, the extremest limit of
forebearance has been reached.” Five days later the Colonel led an armed
force against the Negro-white administration of Wilmington, slaughtered
scores, and announced himself the new mayor. The Government gave
silent assent.

In 1900, when both men and newspapers spoke less circuitously than
they do today, the San Francisco Argonaut said: “We do not want the
Filipinos. We want the Philippines. The islands are enormously rich, I
but, unfortunately they are infested by Filipinos. There are many mil- j
lions there and it is to be feared their extinction will be slow.” 3 In the 1
same vein and in the same year Senator Tillman of South Carolina took
the floor of the United States Senate and announced: “We took the gov*
ernment away. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot Negroes! We are not
ashamed of it!” 4

Genocide and War

Thus there is ample historical precedent for genocidal crime increasing
against the Negro people in time of war or threat of war as it is now
increasing and has been since 1945. As Senator Edwin C. Johnson,
remarked on May 17, 1951 in the United States Senate, calling for an end
of the Korean war, that conflict is “a breeder of bitter racial hatred.”
Murder on the basis of race by police and courts, as in the typical cases
of the innocent Willie McGee in Mississippi and the Martinsville Seven
in Virginia, has long since become so frequent and widespread as to con-
stitute an American phenomenon. Now it is increasing.

2) American Imperialism and White Chauvinism, Herbert Aptheker, Jewish Life, Nev*
York, July 1950, p. 24.

3) Ibid, p. 24.

4) Ibid , p. 24.

1 1 is increasing partly because unpopular war requires a silencing of
ili« people, a breaking of their will for resistance. Increasing violence

I gainst the Negro people goes hand in hand with increased repression
ilunughout American life. The passive conformity found in American
Universities, where any new or democratic idea is suspect, according to
die New Yor\ Times, 8 is but a part of this larger pattern. Reaction knows
1I1 n liberty is indivisible; that a victory for the Negro people in their
•m'Iii for freedom may well presage a victory for labor and the forces of
l'< e. Moreover, it feels that clamor against this baleful American

mne, against genocide by the Government of the United States, is
miriidurable when all iniquity is supposed to rest with the enemy.

I Ik’ very presence of the Negro people in the United States under the
mi siing circumstances is an indictment and an exposure that evokes
li 1 1 red against them.

In addition, the great majority of Negroes are for peace, and peace
I * Ik Lingers profits. George Bott, general counsel for the National Labor
j Mat ions Board, has formally ruled that advocacy of peace by a worker
1 11 1 ause for discharge. The venerable Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, elder states-
•ii in of the Negro people, man of letters and scholar of international
" Mown, has been indicted by the Government of the United States for
Iiin advocacy of peace. Such advocacy, it is charged, makes him a “foreign
•>■< nr.” Paul Robeson, a spokesman for the American Negro people who
.. known and honored the world around, has been denied a passport for
liivel abroad because he speaks uncompromisingly for peace. His voice,
i"", endangers the profits from war. All these factors combine to make the
' l> y,m people in the United States the increasing target of reaction’s
Itnocidal fury.

The End of Genocide Means Peace

Hus genocide of which your petitioners complain serves now, as it
in previous forms in the past, specific political and economic aims.
Once its goal was the subjugation of American Negroes for the profits of
l "i 1 cl slavery. Now its aim is the splitting and emasculation of mass
fimvements for peace and democracy, so that reaction may perpetuate its
"iitrol and continue receiving the highest profits in the entire history of
-1 m. That purpose menaces the peace of the world as well as the life and
** • I fare of the Negro people whose condition violates every aspect of the

II niicd Nation’s stated goal— the preservation “of peaceful and friendly
I'l.ii ions among nations” by the promotion of “respect for human rights

- I fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race. . .

I >tir case is strong because it is true. As it cannot be effectively denied
I'L it mortal dies, so it cannot be convincingly said that Negroes in the
[United States are not persecuted, segregated, assaulted and killed, day

GENOCIDE

in and day out, on the basis of race and in such numbers as to make thii
oppression an American institution. Therefore, we solemnly ask thi
General Assembly to condemn this genocide on the score that it is no*
only an international crime in violation of the United Nations Chartci
and the Genocide Convention but that it is a threat to the peace of tin
world.

The end of genocide against the Negro people of the United State*
will mean returning this country to its people. It will mean a new growl!
of popular democracy and the forces of peace. It will mean an end to tin
threat of atomic war. It will mean peace for the world and all mankind

PART II

The Law

and the Indictment

Why the Genocide Convention was passed, its provisions
as an extension of the Charter of the United Nations, its rela-
tion to American law, our right of petition, the duty of the
General Assembly to hear our complaint, precedents for hear-
ing it, and the indictment of the Government of the United
States of America for the crime of genocide against the Negro
people of the United States.

The Law and the Indictment

•mocked by the Nazis’ barbaric murder of millions of Jews and millions
o( Poles, Russians, Czechs and other nationals on the sole basis of “race”
under Hitler’s law — just as Negroes are murdered on the basis of “race”
m the United States under Mississippi, Virginia and Georgia law — the
< icneral Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Genocide Conven-
hon on December 9, 1948.

Why the Genocide Convention Was Passed

The Convention, to a marked degree, is a result of the Nuremberg
nials of the Nazi war criminals at the conclusion of World War II. The
uial, according to Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson of the United
States, then a special prosecutor of the Nazi criminals, indicated that
domestic genocide in time of peace has an inevitable tendency to the
lucater genocide of war. Indeed he declared in his opening statement
I bat the first was preparation for the latter. This domestic genocide,
Mr. Jackson asserted, was the foundation of predatory war and the prel-
ude to the larger genocide that followed against the nationals of other
countries, a genocide seeking the political and economic control of

I mi rope, if not the world, as the previous domestic genocide had secured

II in Germany.

As Justice Jackson said in his opening statement at the Nuremberg trial:

“How a government treats its own inhabitants generally is thought to be
no concern of other governments or of international society. Certainly few
impressions or cruelties would warrant the intervention of foreign powers,
lint the German mistreatment of Germans is now known to pass in magni-
mde and savagery any limits of what is tolerable by modern civilization.
Other nations by silence would ta\e a consenting part in such crimes. These
Nazi persecutions, moreover, take character as international crimes because
nf the purpose for which they were undertaken. If aggressive warfare in vio-

32 GENOCIDE

lation of treaty obligations is a matter of international cognizance, the prep
oration for it must also be of concern to the international community . Terror -
ism was the chief instrument for securing the cohesion of the German peo<
pie in war purposes (Italics ours.)

The relation between domestic genocide and international war caused
progressive world opinion to favor the drafting and passage of the Geno-
cide Convention. Genocide became an international crime because it
was an international danger. “How a government treats its own inhabi- |
tants” must be of world concern when that treatment includes a war-
breeding genocide that may engulf the world.

The Nuremberg trial punished after the crime and after war had been
precipitated by its perpetrators. But the Genocide Convention looks
toward preventing war through preventing and punishing the crime of
genocide in time of peace before war occurs. It declares (Article I) that
“The contracting parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in
time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which
they undertake to prevent and punish.” It may be relevant to note
that this American genocide of which your petitioners complain, also sur-
passes “in magnitude and savagery any limits of what is tolerable by
modern civilization,” in Justice Jackson's words. And above all it, too,
is being used in part as an instrument “for securing the cohesion” of the
people of the United States “in war purposes.” We are confronted by a
“deadly parallel ”

Aspects of the Convention

It is sometimes incorrectly thought that the definition of genocide is
the complete and utter extinction by force and violence of a people or
group. Article II of the Genocide Convention, however, defines the
crime as meaning

“any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Article III of the Convention provides that “The following acts shall
be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.”

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT 33

I hc Genocide Convention differs from other international proclama-
nons such as the Declaration of Human Rights. It is more than a state-
ment of moral principle. It is law, international law, setting out specific

• times and specific punishments. It has all the status of solemn treaty.
1 1 takes its place beside such international prohibitions as those forbid-
•ling and punishing piracy and slavery. As such it focuses attention on
i lie criminal. Under its terms persons committing genocide or attempting
'•> commit genocide shall be punished “whether they are constitutionally

■ ‘•sponsible rulers, public officials, or private individuals.” (Article IV.)

'The contracting parties under Article V undertake to provide effec-
tive domestic penalties for persons guilty of genocide, while Articles VII,
VIII and IX provide measures for international cooperation and control.
Under the Convention the nations of the civilized world recognize and
i' cept their responsibility to take individual and collective action against
genocide “in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge.”
( IVeamble.) In addition the Convention provides for the future creation

■ »! a world criminal court having jurisdiction over genocide. (Article VI.)

'Thus the essence of the Convention is recognition of the principle that
•Ik* prevention and punishment of genocide requires international en-
forcement. It is designed to insure international liability where the state
o-sponsibility has not been properly discharged. It therefore applies to
i lie existing situation in the United States. For the daily acts of genocide

• ommitted against the American Negro people are so numerous and

• •I such long standing, embedded in the law and often perpetrated by
Mich organs of state government as the police and courts, that they could
not take place without the positive or negative sanction of the several
Mates and the Government of the United States of America. White
Mipremacy has been voiced as a state philosophy by government officials,
l ederal, state and city, and in order to effectuate that policy city, state and
Inleral governments have sanctioned “direct and public incitement to
ujinmit genocide” and “conspiracy to commit genocide” (Article III),

■ >utlawed as national and international crimes “contrary to the spirit and

■ i ms of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world.”
(IVeamble to Convention.)

The Convention and the Charter

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
i Vnocide, the requisite twenty states having ratified it in accordance with
Article XIII, entered into force on January 14, 1951. It is binding on all
1 i s signatories, which include the United States of America.

The Genocide Convention, we submit, is clearly an extension and im-
plementation of the Charter of the United Nations. Its obvious intent is
in give force and effect to the Charter’s numerous pronouncements that

GENOCIDE

the purpose of the United Nations is to contribute to “peaceful and
friendly relations among nations” by promoting “respect for human
rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race,
sex, language or religion.” Seven separate articles of the United Nations
Charter deal with “respect for human rights” and “fundamental free-
doms for all without distinction as to race. . . .”

The Genocide Convention thus provides for the enforcement of the
very heart of the United Nations Charter. Failure to enforce the Geno-
cide Convention would not only reduce the Convention to idle verbiage
but would similarly transform the Charter. It is apparent that unless
those provisions of the Genocide Convention forbidding “killing mem-
bers of the group,” “causing serious bodily and mental harm to members
of the group,” etc., are enforced there can be no reality to such salient
articles of the Charter as the following:

Article i

The purposes of the United Nations are . . .

3. ... to achieve international cooperation in solving international prob-
lems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in pro-
moting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental free-
doms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion. (59 Stat.
10 37)

Article 13

1. The General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations
for the purpose of . . .

b. . . . assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental free-
doms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion. (59 Stat.
I0 39)

Article 55

With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which
are necessary for the peaceful and friendly relations among nations based on
respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples,
the United Nations shall promote. . . .

c. Universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental
freedom for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. (59
Stat. 1045-46)

Article 56

All Members pledge themselves to take joint and separate action in coop-
eration with the Organization for the achievement of the purposes set forth
in Article 55. (59 Stat. 1046)

Article 62

2. It (the Economic and Social Council) may make recommendations for
the purpose of promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and
fundamentnl freedoms for all. (59 Stat. toj6)

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT

Article 68

The Economic and Social Council shall set up commissions in economic
-♦ml social fields for the promotion of human rights, and such other commis-
*i»m as may be required for the performance of its functions. (59 Stat. 1047)

Article 76

The basic objectives of the trusteeship system in accordance with the Pur-
|m r.c'S of the United Nations laid down in Article 1 of the present Charter
dull be . . .

• . To encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms
Imi all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion, and to encour-
-♦!;• recognition of the interdependence of the peoples of the world. (59 Stat.
1049)

1 1 is obviously the duty of member states of the United Nations to
1 my out these provisions of the Charter. If the Government of the
Ihiited States of America did so there would be no necessity for this
("Mition. The genocide practiced against the petitioners and the Negro
people of the United States stems from a direct failure on the part of

• Ik- United States to enforce its obligations under the Charter. We com-
l' 1 -iin, therefore, not only of the violation of the Genocide Convention
l»V i he United States but also of its refusal to perform its solemn obliga-
limis under the Charter of the United Nations.

That genocide violated the United Nations Charter was admitted by

I )ran Rusk, Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, in testify-
iii)’, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said:

“Senator Pepper, I think it would be true not only that genocide would be

II violation of the specific convention but these acts defined as genocide, if

• ninmitted by governments, would be violations of their obligations to the
I luited Nations.” 1

I he Genocide Convention does not change the Charter, but strengthens

• I by reducing general proclamations to the status of specific law. Even if
1 he Genocide Convention had not been ratified by twenty member states
in accordance with Article XIII, this petition complaining of genocide

• ommitted against the Negro people of the United States could be sus-
1 lined under the provisions of the Charter.

The Charter Supersedes Conflicting United States Law

Ihe refusal of the United States to carry out the provisions of the
( barter of the United Nations is not only an international offense but

• Iso a violation of a cardinal principle of United States law. For the
Charter, having been signed by the United States and ratified by its
T-nate, becomes the supreme law of the land, its provisions against segre-

1) Hearings on Genocide Convention p. 17.

GENOCIDE

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT

3 *

gation and discrimination superseding and voiding every state law in con-
flict with them. In a recent case (Fujii v. California, 97 A.C.A. 154), 1
native of Asia challenged the California law which bars Asians from own
ing land. The court held that the law of the Charter of the United Nation*
superseded the law of California when the latter was in conflict with thf *
former.

This position of the court is in accordance with the fundamental prin
ciples of the United States law. The Charter, because it was ratified by thr
Senate and has the status of treaty, is, according to the Constitution of thr
United States, “the supreme law of the land and the judges in every Stair
shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State, !
notwithstanding.” (Article VI, Section 2.)

The supremacy of treaties over state laws has in fact been the law ol
the United States since 1796 and the decision in the case of Ware v. Hyi
ton which held that, It is within the power of the Federal Government
by treaty to remove from state control any matter which has become thr
subject of negotiations.”

Yet the Government of the United States, despite its avowed adherence
to the Charter of the United Nations, despite international law and its own
law, has failed to insist on the supremacy of the principles of the Charter,
It has taken no action to void the many racist anti-Negro laws of thr
several states. It has done nothing to negate “white supremacy” by law or 1
executive and judicial action.

It has imposed no domestic penalties for violation of the Genocide Con
vention, although as a signatory it is clearly required to do so by the
terms of Article V. ]

The obligation to implement the Convention is absolute and in no way I
dependent upon ratification. Having been ratified by twenty membci
states as provided for, the Convention has become binding on all membci
states. The obligations stem from the undertaking as a contracting party,
But the Government of the United States has wilfully failed to pass such
legislation. Enforcement at the level which the Convention looked to foi
control is non-existent in the United States. Indeed there has been no
attempt at either state or federal enforcement.

Moreover, if the Charter and the Genocide Convention which implr
ments the Charter, supersedes, negates and voids racist anti-Negro law*
of the several states and the Federal Government, it also creates the solemn
international obligation that the Government of the United States enforce
those laws and constitutional provisions already in existence which would
buttress and give effect to the principles of the Charter and of the Con* '
vention. This includes the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the
Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing equal rights to the Negro
people. The President, the Supreme Court, members of Congress and other

••Hi* ials solemnly swear to enforce these Amendments but do not, in viola-
Hnii not only of their oath of office but also of the principles of the Charter
♦♦••I i he Genocide Convention.

Hut it is incumbent upon the United Nations to see that the Conven-

and the Charter are not violated, especially by member states.

There is a distressing disparity between the solemn pledges of the
Government of the United States and its actions in fact. It is pledged to
lullill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with
thr present Charter” (Article II) to the end that “fundamental human

* 4; I its ... the dignity and worth of the human person, the equal rights
•I men and women and the nations large and small” (Preamble) may
o fiult in the achievement of “international cooperation in solving interna-
lional problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian char-
•»• i« r and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for
I'mdamental freedom without distinction as to race, sex, language or
m ligion.”

This is the solemn pledge of the Government of the United States. But
imi actions involve it in the killing and oppression of genocide on the
Hitlerian basis of race. The failure of the Government of the United
•laics to implement the United Nations Charter and the Genocide Con-
vr nt ion, as well as its long-standing failure to enforce the Fourteenth and
f ifteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States, clearly
M-vcal that the oppression and genocide being practiced against the Negro
people of the United States is a policy of the Government of the United
'•tales.

The Right to Petition

If the peoples of the world were voiceless save when their pleas were
uttered by governments, the great protections of the Charter and the Dec-
I. n ation of Fluman Rights might become meaningless. The rights of indi-
viduals or minority groups to petition the United Nations is clearly in-
li« rent in the Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights. The General
\ssembly is charged with the obligation to “initiate studies and to make
ireommendations for the protection of human rights and fundamental
hredoms for all.” (Article XIII.) If those whose human rights are violated

• mi speak only through the government that violates them, or through
nine other formal state entity, the right of the General Assembly to make
ireommendations for the protection of human rights is considerably
vitiated. It is obviously necessary to hear the complaints of minority peo-
ples if studies or recommendations protecting their rights are to have any
meaning.

This was apparent to the League of Nations whose Council declared in
a resolution of October 29, 1920:

3 ^

GENOCIDE

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT 39

“Evidently this right does not in any way exclude the right of minority
or even of states not represented in the Council, to call the attention of tin
League of Nations to any infraction or danger of infraction.” 2

That all are equal before the law and shall be accorded equal protcM
tion before the law” is the assertion of Article 20 of the Declaration 41
Human Rights. Yet without equal access to the law there can be m
equality before it. A law that the sufferer cannot invoke gives no prot$|
tion, equal or otherwise. The United Nations, moreover, declares itsetfl
an organization formed by “We, the people of the United Nations, dr
termined ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignifv j
and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and womciJ
and of nations large and small . . .”

Thus it is clear that the United Nations is more than a concert of stale
entities. Rather it exists in the name of the peoples of the world, win
created for their benefit and can be invoked by them whenever thch j
fundamental human rights” are violated by a sovereign nation. If tin
were not true, if minority groups suffering under the crime of genocide
had not the right to appeal to the United Nations, both the Charter ami
the Genocide Convention would be reduced to meaningless and hypocriii I
cal abstractions. It was not the purpose of the United Nations to definJ
and forbid the crime of genocide while denying those suffering from 11 '
the right to state their case.

The Duty of the General Assembly

It is equally clear that the General Assembly has the right and dm
to hear our complaint under the provisions of the Charter. This cum
involves those violations of “fundamental human rights” outlined in \\v
Charter and forbidden by the Genocide Convention. It has frequently bet
held that any matter coming within the scope of the Charter is admissil.l
before the General Assembly. Thus, Mr. Evatt, in addressing himself J
the resolution on the Mindzsenty case, said:

There was not a single question or matter coming within the scope of \l
Charter, relating to its aims, its principles, or any one of its provisions, whic!
could not be discussed by the General Assembly. If any question was covert-
by an article of the Charter, that question would no longer be a matter essei! 1
tially within the domestic jurisdiction of a state.” 3

The General Assembly, itself, took this view when it passed a resolutifu I
condemning the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation A' |
passed by the Parliament of the Union of South Africa in 1946. This A<
denied South African citizens of Indian descent certain civil rights, |li

2) League of Nations, Protection of Linguistic, Racial
League of Nations, Geneva, 1931, pp. 7-12.

or Religious Minorities by it

• miniating against them on the basis of race, just as Negroes are discrimi-
’"'•<1 against by racist laws in the United States. The Government of
Mia contended that the Act breached treaty obligations and violated the
Mill it and letter of the United Nations Charter. It requested the General
Atftcmbly to pass a resolution urging South Africa to desist from any
plicy of discrimination.

South Africa questioned the authority of the Assembly to pass such a
■Solution. It pleaded immunity under Article XI, Paragraph 7, of the

• 'mied Nations Charter which states that “Nothing contained in the
' lurter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which
*h essentially within the jurisdiction of any State. . . .” The General
Amenably, however, rejected this plea, basing its action on Article 55 of
tlir Charter which authorizes the United Nations “to promote ... a
universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental
Inrdoms for all without distinction as to race.” The Assembly resolution
In lared that “it is of the opinion that the treatment of Indians in the
Union should be in conformity with the international obligations under
1 In agreements concluded between the two governments, and the relevant
provisions of the Charter " 4

As has been said, a complaint against a nation on the ground that geno-
i'k is practiced against a minority people can be sustained by Article 55

• •I i be Charter which has been ratified as treaty by the Senate of the
I billed States. We repeat that the Genocide Convention is an implemen-

• a ion of the Charter, a law for the specific enforcement of certain pro-
visions of the Charter. The two are so closely connected that they must
I'f considered as a whole. Under any circumstances, however, those who
<11 < denied the rights guaranteed by the United Nations have a right both
hi justice and in law to appeal to the United Nations for relief. There-
l"ic the petitioners herein again allege that their complaint of genocide
inn be sustained not only on the basis of the provisions of the Genocide
1 'invention but also, as in the decision against South Africa, on the basis

• *l Article 55 of the Charter.

American Opinion Believes the Convention Applies

h is relevant to note that the American Bar Association believes that
Ik crimes against the Negro people in the United States come within the
I'M ‘visions of the Genocide Convention. It is for that reason, in fact, that
1 lie Bar Association has opposed its ratification. It believes that if the vio-
lence and persecution directed against the Negro people were liable for
lumishment in other than domestic courts, irreparable harm might be
‘liuie'to “the American form of government,” i.e., so-called “state’s rights.”

0 A/BUR/SR 58, p. 13, UN Document.

4) U.N. document A/C 1 & 6/12.

GENOCIDE

This is a profound commentary upon the character of government b|
those who today rule America, rather than upon any truly “American forn
of government,” as it is called.

The American Bar Association is the pre-eminent organization of la v* :
yers in the United States. Its resolution not only makes no attempt to den*
that oppression and violence on the basis of race is directed against th*
Negro people in the United States but, on the contrary, is based on thn
prevalence of that violence. It admits the very substance of our complain
What it fears is that punishment by an international agency might srii
ously breach the “American legal system.” It admits that the lynchin
and terror directed against the Negro people will be construed as gem
cide under the terms of the Convention. Nonetheless, it maintains tin
these crimes are genocide only under United Nations law and are In
genocide in reality and in fact.

Its Special Committee on Peace and Law through the United Nation
objected to the ratification of the Genocide Convention because:

“Endless confusion in the dual system of the United States would be ii>
evitable with the same crime being murder in state law and genocide in if
federal and international fields. Race riots and lynching being both local crinn
and genocide depending on the intent and extent of participation.” 6

The Bar Association’s complaint is hypocritical— it exaggerates a non i
existent danger. It well knows that neither Federal nor state courts n»
force the laws against race riots or lynching. Unpunished lynchers b
outnumber any punished. We allege, and shall hereinafter prove, that il
courts, on the contrary, are used for the “legal” murder of innocent Nr
groes on the basis of race and as an instrument of white supremacy am 1
genocide.

The American Bar Association passed a resolution opposing the ratified I
tion of the Genocide Convention on September 7, 1949. Its resolutioi
deplored genocide but added that “The Convention raised important’
fundamental questions but does not resolve them in a manner consisted
with our form of government.” It further declared:

“American citizens might eventually come to be triable by an internatiotui
tribunal where they would not be surrounded by the constitutional safeguard
and legal rights accorded persons charged with domestic crime.”

Here again is tacit admission that the United Nations has venue am
jurisdiction under the Genocide Convention of complaints brought befoul
it relevant to the crimes being committed against the Negro people in th»
United States. The American Bar Association is well aware that Negr-

5) American Bar Association Special Committee on Peace and Law, Rep. 12, 1949, W I

IS.

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT 4 1

lll/rns desire to be tried by “tribunals” where they would be surrounded
Ilf n institutional safeguards and more than formal legal rights. However,

!•» bar Association goes on to argue with the terms of the Convention,
taring that genocide ought to be defined as a crime only when “Geno-
iil« directly affects thousands of persons. Anything short of a crime
•r m is 1 thousands constitutes the local crime of murder.” It further holds
lltrit “reliance of punishment of individuals is upon the national courts”
Mid states in its resolution that genocide “can only happen with the
•Hi' lal approval or complicity of the Government of the United States.”

I We agree with the last statement. Genocide, in this instance, and per-
li.ips in all instances, takes place only with the “approval and complicity”

1 1 lie government under which it is perpetrated. We allege, and shall
(Move, moreover, that “thousands of persons” are affected, are the victims
1 1 lie genocide directed against the Negro people in the United States,
linl that the national courts, instead of trying the guilty, are themselves
•« .1 branch of government guilty of genocide as a matter of consistent
(m 1 1 1* y . Over the years the courts have legally murdered innocent Negroes

• 1 1 lie basis of race, thus playing their part in oppressing the Negro
I'MipIc and keeping them in economic and political bondage. It is be-
- nr.r we Negro petitioners have no true and real recourse in these courts,
tin .(Use we receive no protection from the state, because police and courts
«t< iliemselves involved in the genocide directed against us, that we are
limed to appeal to the General Assembly for redress and relief.

1 1 is important to note that virtually all those who opposed ratification

I l lie Genocide Convention before the United States Senate Committee

II foreign Relations, did so precisely because the Genocide Convention
iprcifically applies to the crimes being committed against the Negro peo-
1 i in the United States. Thus Leander H. Perez, District Attorney of
I "iiisiana, expressed the fears of the lynchers and white supremacists in

• In- United States when he testified that:

"All forms of homicide and personal injury cases could be brought under
'In broad mantle of genocide, and the mechanics of the thing would simply
U f hat the United States attorney would walk into the State district court and
•ii ivr to transfer the cases to the Federal Courts. But what is still worse than
'll- destruction of our constitutional set-up and our framework of government
in America is the over-hanging threat that citizens of our States some day

• ill have to face the international tribunal, where now they must face the
•hue Courts and a jury of their peers.” 6

Peculiarly enough, in view of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend-
n m ms to the Constitution guaranteeing equal rights to the Negro, virtually

• II white supremacists declare that nothing can be done about the wrongs
Inerted against the Negro people without “destruction of our constitu-
> nal set-up.” Of course, they know these constitutional amendments are

GENOCIDE

never enforced. They are equally adamant that perpetrators of criim*
against the Negro people shall be tried locally by a “jury of their pecri
because they know such trials are a bulwark of white supremacy and *
protector of genocide. Harry S. Barger, of the National Economic Coull
cil, a fascist organization, argued openly when he testified before tbl
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations:

As a matter of fact, this pending Convention goes much further tlw
merely outlawing mass murder. In effect its real purpose is to set up ft*
international FEPC. If I may, I should like to suggest that the ultim|ty|
effect of it will be to punish in every country the crime of lynching. .■
The punishment should be left to the States where they have trial by jink
of their peers and the punishment inflicted by the courts of justice set J
under our American standards/’

The Ku Klux Klan, a terroristic organization licensed by the states a||
permitted by the Federal Government despite its frankly anti-Negro [>r«
gram, also opposed the ratification of the Convention. It conducted pJ
active lobbying campaign against such ratification.

At the Senate hearings, the question of whether or not lynching, ran
riots and other crimes committed against the Negro people were pun
ishable under the Genocide Convention, was repeatedly raised and repcfti
edly answered in the affirmative. Alfred J. Schweppe, Chairman of th|
Bar Association s Special Committee on Peace and Law through thtl
United Nations, testified:

“What is meant by inflicting mental harm on part of a group which mJ
mean a single person? Also what about a lynching or a race riot? The Sim I
Department s letter of transmittal recognizes that genocide may be commiiwq
against a single individual. If, for example, in a town of the United Stair
of America, where a crime has allegedly been committed by some unidentili< I
Chinaman, I should decide to get rid of all or most all the Chinamen in |;|J|
town by force, and should in the process kill or maim one Chinaman, I woui
be guilty of genocide, in that with intent to destroy part of the racial groU|»J
I had killed or maimed one individual. The Chinaman could well b®
colored person, or a member of any other minority gioup.”

The applicability of the Genocide Convention to crimes against V

Negro people was raised by Senator McMahon of Connecticut at M

hearings:

SENATOR McMAHON: Now let’s take a lynching case, for examplij
Let’s assume there is a lynching and a colored man is murdered. Is it yflM

contention that that could be construed to be within the confines of tli

definition, namely, with intent to destroy him as part of a group?

“MR. SCHWEPPE: The International Court will ultimately tell us. Acini

6) Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, January 23, 1950, p. 229.

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT

II y • race riot of some substantial character would be more clearly within
m < oncept of genocide.”

I Inis, the very arguments opposing the Genocide Convention com-
Inrly support our petition. First, they admit that the terror against the
hid people in the United States is genocide. Second, they admit this
Nmm is punishable under the Convention. Third, they admit the Con-
Miunn overrides state and national law. And finally, they come to the
‘bini conclusion that just because the Genocide Convention would be
ft* five in stopping this terror against the Negro people , the United
MU \ Government must veto the Convention — and continue its present
iivl. \s terror.

I In* Bar Association and others seek to avoid the elimination of geno-
»!• committed against the Negro people of the United States by pre-
111 ' ng American ratification of the Convention. They forget, however,
i»h 1 be Convention, having been ratified by twenty nations, is now in
Ih and binding on all its signatories, including the United States.

v overlook the fact that the Government of the United States, having
""I the Convention, having solemnly promised to punish those guilty
t f nocide, having contracted to implement its laws thereto, is morally
* I legally bound by its undertaking.

The Indictment for Violation of the Convention

I I is manifest that a people cannot be consistently killed over the years on
basis of ‘race,’ — and more than 10,000 Negroes have so suffered death —

be uniformly segregated, despoiled, impoverished and denied equal

"•a lion before the law unless it is the result of the deliberate, all-pervasive
It* v of government and those who control it.” 7

I br principal defendant in our indictment, if either term can be
•I" 1 ly used in such a proceeding, is the Government of the United
ib '- of America. Whatever the proper terminology, however, we ac-
ir 1 lie Government of the United States of America of being primarily

I sible for the genocide committed against the Negro people who live

1 1 its sovereignty and are therefore entitled to its protection instead
" persecution. It is guilty of “killing members of the group,” we allege,

I br reason, among others, that its Supreme Court has failed to use its
*' • 1 to save from death innocent Negroes, convicted on the basis of

• " by venal courts after torture in violation of the due process clause
ib« Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,

• 11 as in violation of the United Nations Charter and the Genocide
iivrntion.

‘"i indictment charges the Government of the United States with
•••ion of virtually every provision of the Genocide Convention. Our

• I tom the Opening Statement of this petition.

GENOCIDE

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT 45

evidence, in Part III of this petition, sustains the charges. But the
and central fact is that the basic law of the United States itself specifici!)
forbids violence and discrimination against the Negro people on the Ini
of race, forbids genocide, and that that law is not enforced as a will
and long-sustained policy of government in violation of the Constitute
of the United States, the United Nations Charter, and the Genoj|(
Convention.

The policy of non-enforcement of basic American constitutional ||)|
written and passed to protect the Negro people, has become a legal Ik
thorization of genocide. It is the enabling act for genocide. It is il
foundation for segregation and other discriminatory practices in law ah
by the courts. Non-enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment of
Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the Negro pco
due process of law” and “equal treatment before the law,” obvioil
incites to genocide. Non-enforcement as a matter of cardinal polio
the Civil Rights Act, also drafted and passed by Congress to protect
rights of the Negro people, is government notification that the Nr
people have no rights that will be protected by the Government of
United States.

W r shall charge the Government of the United States with specific
iiltitions of specific provisions of the Genocide Convention. We main-
ln that if the United States is guilty of “conspiracy to commit genocide,”
wr allege, it is also guilty of “killing members of the group” and of
•l,n ion of other provisions of the Convention. It is an established prin-
l'l‘f of law that conspiracy to murder makes every member of the
i ttpiracy equally guilty with the conspirator who committed the actual
l "I murder. It would be a poor thing to charge a police officer or
I -my sheriff with genocide and to leave untouched and unrebuked the
■ # i rign power, in this case the Government of the United States, whose
I* mid failures to act, whose racist laws and statutes enforcing segrega-
•n. whose courts and legislatures and totality of policy, have manufac-

1 the climate for genocide as well as the institution of genocide —

very capital is self-admittedly a “disgrace to the nation” because of
bestial and inhuman character of its racist practices.

In view of this and other facts, we charge in relation to the following
jiim is ions of the Convention:

ARTICLE II (a). KILLING MEMBERS OF THE GROUP

The notorious failure to enforce, or even attempt to enforce, the Pi |
teenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which sti|*
lates that Negro citizens shall be secure in their right to vote, results, Ajt4|
long has resulted, in the murder of Negroes on the basis of race wl»
they have attempted to vote. Nor are such murderers tried under tl/
Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendment or the Civil Rights Act. For geflft
cide, killing members of the group, is the policy of the Government
the United States no matter what the legal circumlocutions used >
conceal it.

It is evident that a government which has the power to punish mum
on the basis of race and does not use it as a matter of invariable polk J
encourages murders on the basis of race. Nor can the Government of ||J
United States, we submit, escape liability by pleading that it is not resptw I
sible for the laws or actions of the several states under its central authfl
lty. Not only is it a well-known principle of American law that stm
statutes, such as those providing for segregation, must be in conformli 1
with a Federal Constitution guaranteeing equality before the law f. I
the Negro people, but it is an ancient and universally accepted princip
of international law that a sovereign state is responsible for internation
crimes committed within its borders. It cannot escape such responsibili
by the declaration that such crimes are authorized by the law of onef
its own political subdivisions. A sovereign state must accept respond
lty for international crimes committed within its confines. Genocide |
such a crime.

1 1>< main characteristic of genocide is its object: the act must be
Wlmicd toward the destruction of a group in whole or in part. Groups

• • I*. i of individuals and criminal actions against groups must in the
1**1 unalysis be actions against individual members of the group.

I hr crime of genocide is not conditioned upon the factual destruction
•I ii group in whole or in part but on the intent to achieve this aim.
M< »i rover, genocide is not characterized by intent to destroy a whole
pMiij), but rather on the intent of eliminating a portion of a group given
kntity by its common racial, national or ethnic characteristics. (U.N.
Buument A/C. 6/242)

1 Mir petitioners, in the first count of their indictment against the Gov-

nr ut of the United States of America, charge that members of a

"Kiimity ethnic group, the Negro people of the United States, have been
••• I ,n c being killed (see Evidence, Part III) and that such killings are
‘mi. nded and aimed at the destruction of the group in whole or in part
m " liich the murdered individuals belonged.

ARTICLE II (b). CAUSING SERIOUS BODILY OR MENTAL
HARM TO MEMBERS OF THE GROUP

I lie assaults, beatings and maimings directed against the Negro
)•• 1 dr on a basis of race, hereinafter described in Part III, obviously
m instances of “serious bodily and mental harm,” particularly when
i!t < uime is executed by officers of the state. (See Evidence, Part III)

1 1" petitioners charge, moreover, that the killing of substantial numbers

GENOCIDE

of the group, that is the Negro people of the United States, is done \v> |
the intent of inflicting serious bodily and mental harm on the win
group.

Mass murder on the basis of race is a powerful source of consiu<
terror, as it is intended to be, to the whole Negro people. As a rnx
of the pattern of extra-legal violence in which they live out their livi
if they do live, the entire Negro people exists in a constant fear [M
cannot fail to cause serious bodily and mental harm.

Another source of serious bodily and mental harm is the segregnu*
which imprisons United States Negroes from birth to death, marking (In
status as inferior as a matter of law on the basis of race, cutting tlx
off from adequate education, hospital facilities, medical treatment, ftfyj
housing, forcing them to live in ghettos and depriving them of ri>;l»
and privileges that other Americans are accorded as a matter of cow*
This imprisonment which cuts off United States Negroes from the servi^
and privileges of their fellow citizens, which makes them pariahs in tlx
own country, results in a condition which is temperately described by (It
words “serious bodily and mental harm.”

Section (b) of Article II seeks to cover the various methods of gm
cide described by Rafael Lemkin, who coined the word and declared:

“Genocide can be effected by physical, political, social, cultural, biologJ 1
economic and religious and moral oppression.”

The petitioners in the second count of their indictment against il
Government of the United States of America charge it with politim !
social, cultural, biological, economic and moral oppression which h:i^ 1
been and are being inflicted on the Negro people of the United Stan
and which has resulted and will result in “serious bodily and mental hoi i*
to members of the group.”

ARTICLE II (c). DELIBERATELY INFLICTING ON THE
GROUP CONDITIONS OF LIFE CALCULATED TO BRING
ABOUT ITS PHYSICAL DESTRUCTION IN WHOLE OR
IN PART

As a result of segregation, of living in ghettos and disease-breedm
housing, of being barred from the great majority of hospitals, as a resul
of disci imination in employment which makes for a tragically low ii/
come, of violence which often prevents trade union organization, of tli
semi-peonage of share-cropping, of a terror which prevents member '
of the group from using political action to better their condition, as
result of these and other factors, United States Negroes are deprived on «
average of nearly eight years of life as compared with the life expectant
of white Americans. Disease rates and mortality rates are higher amofii

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT

|Im Negro people than in any comparable segment of the United States
l*n|)ulation. (See Part III, The Evidence.)

I his does not just happen. It results from “deliberately inflicting” on

• In group such conditions for the purpose of depressing wages, increasing
|»M>(it, and retaining reactionary political and economic control through

• In divisions they effect in American life. The conditions are imposed
with the intent to destroy in whole or in part.

Therefore, we charge as the third count in our indictment of the

• *<>vernment of the United States of America, acts, both by individuals
•ml state and federal officials, which constitute “deliberately inflicting on
I hr group” — the Negro people of the United States — “conditions of life

• il* ulated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

ARTICLE III. CONSPIRACIES, ATTEMPTS, INCITEMENTS
AND COMPLICITY TO COMMIT GENOCIDE

Article III declares that the following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

1 1 is obvious that genocide could not adequately be prevented or pun-

• hrd if only those who actually killed, or directly caused serious bodily
"i mental harm, or violated other provisions of Article II of the Conven-

• idii were held to be guilty. Therefore Article III was included to appre-
l“'nd and punish those involved by cooperation with those directly
milty of overt acts of genocide by reason of conspiracy, incitement or

• omplicity to commit the crime.

The petitioners allege that public officials, particularly in the Southern

• ales of the United States, are frequently guilty of murder on the basis

race, of genocide, by direct and public incitement to genocide, by par-

• •< ipating in actual violence on the basis of race as in the case of sheriffs

• ml law enforcement officers, by use of the courts to kill innocent Negroes

• •il the basis of race as a matter of policy in sustaining white supremacy,
by approving and soliciting the murder or assault of Negroes who attempt
i" vote, by being parties to the creation of that terror which results in

•trious bodily and mental harm,” by passing and enforcing laws pro-
dding for segregation in violation of the Constitution, the Charter and
dir Genocide Convention, and by refusing to enforce the criminal law
»f;ainst those guilty of crimes against the Negro people.

The petitioners further charge that officials of the Government of the
United States of America in all its three branches, judicial, legislative,

GENOCIDE

and executive, are guilty of genocide, through their refusal to enforci I
those provisions of the Constitution of the United States which provide
for due process and equality before the law” for the Negro people, I
in violation of the United Nations Charter and those provisions of the
Genocide Convention, among others, which prohibit conspiracy and
complicity.

The petitioners charge, therefore, that the Government of the United
States of America is involved with others in “conspiracy to commit geno

cide,” in violation of Section (b) of Article III of the Genocide Con.
vention.

They further chaige that certain officials of the Government of the
United States of America, as set forth in the evidence of Part III of thin
petition, have with others, including the Governors of certain statoi, |
directly and publicly incited to genocide in violation of Section (c) of
Article III of the Genocide Convention.

They further charge the Government of the United States of America I
and others with “complicity to commit genocide” in violation of Section !
(e) of Article III of the Convention.

ARTICLE IV. RULERS AND OFFICIALS MAY BE PUNISHED
Article IV states:

“Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in

1 , e , a *i . , P un ished whether they are constitutionally responsible I
rulers, public officials, or private individuals.”

The crimes committed against the Negro people on the basis of race
in the United States are in part committed by officials taking an active !
part in such crimes and/or conspiring and inciting individuals to commil '
such criminals acts, and/or in granting immunity to the perpetrators ol
such acts. The petitioners charge, and submit evidence in Part III of this
petition, that public officials of certain states, and certain officials of the
Government of the United States of America, are guilty of conspiring I
to commit genocide, of complicity in genocide, of inciting to genocide
and of other offenses forbidden by the Genocide Convention and the
Charter of the United Nations.

ARTICLE V. ENACTMENT OF DOMESTIC LAW TO
ENFORCE THE CONVENTION

Article V provides:

The contracting parties undertake to enact in accordance with their
respective constitutions the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions 1

of gen^He ^ C ° nVentl0n and t0 P rovicle effective penalties for persons guilty

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT

Regardless of whether or not the Convention is ratified, the Govern-
liiciu of the United States as a contracting party, as a signatory to the
• on vention, is solemnly pledged to enact the legislation provided for in
Anicle V. It is legally and morally bound to do so under the Charter
•od under the Convention. Failure could only be interpreted as a desire
I mi the credit of signing the Convention without the obligation of observ-
ing it or the onus of opposing it.

This is the present situation. The United States Government has made
ho move, recommendation, or act to pass the domestic legislation “to
I ivc effect to the provisions of the present convention” to which it is
vlcmnly obligated under international law. It has failed even to pass a
I air Employment Practice Act, or a Federal anti-lynching law, or even
In enforce laws technically in being which could be used to eliminate
genocide.

That this failure is deliberate, that it stems from the fact that genocide
against the Negro people is an integral part of the fabric of American
law, government and practice, is the only logical conclusion when it is
known that the United States has effectively implemented other inter-
nal ional agreements requiring domestic law for enforcement. It passed
laws, for example, implementing the Treaty for the Suppression of the
1 )|>ium Trade in 1883, the Treaty for the Punishment of Persons Break-
ing or Injuring Submarine Cables in 1889, the Convention on Slavery in
1890, the Convention on the Suppression of White Slave Traffic in
Women and Children in 1904, the Convention on Obscene Publications
in 1911 and the Multilateral Slave Trade Treaty in 1929.

Therefore the petitioners allege that the Government of the United
Slates of America has wilfully violated Article V of the Convention in
1 hat as a contracting party it has not undertaken “to enact ... the neces-
sary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present conven-
tion. . . ”

'The obligation under Article V involves not only the enactment of new
laws in the penal code of the United States. It also means the enforce-
ment of those laws and Amendments to the Constitution which would
eliminate genocide by granting the equal protection to life, liberty and
property of the Negro people provided by the laws and Amendments to
1 he Constitution of the United States. This the United States is also
obligated to do, as we will show, under the Charter of the United Nations.

Instead of honoring this dual obligation, the United States has failed
and continues to fail to enforce the basic guarantees of full and equal
lights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the
( Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States has in fact denied
1 he language, purpose and intent of these Amendments by tortuous
n instructions holding that the authority of the Federal Government can-

GENOCIDE

5 °

not protect the rights of the Negro people if those rights are violated by
individuals and not by the actions of one of the several states. Since all
crimes, including those of states, are carried out by human beings, thin
decision has been used over the generations, and still is being used, to
strip Negro Americans of the protection of their government. 8

Now this important fact contains one of the legal bases supporting
our complaint to the United Nations. The United States Government,
having formally ratified the United Nations Charter and having signed
the Genocide Convention as a contracting party, is guilty of breaches <>!
solemn pledges to the United Nations in violating these Amendments.
The failure to enforce them involves violation of international law as
well as national.

The Genocide Convention and the United Nations Charter (Article
56) impose obligations upon the members of the United Nations. The
word “pledge,” if it has any meaning at all, involves the solemn promise,
the contractual undertaking, to perform that which is pledged. Reference
to “separate” action as distinguish from “joint” action reveals that Mem
bers are individually bound by the Charter to act on their own part for the
achievement of “universal respect for an observance of human rights and
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race. . . .” Indeed
this is the sense of the entire Charter for it would obviously be monstrous
for members to violate at home what they undertake to uphold abroad.
But this the United States has done.

Therefore the petitioners charge the Government of the United States
with violating its pledges, its solemn international undertakings, under
Charter and the Genocide Convention, and allege that by reason of
such violations the Negro people of the United States have suffered
from acts of genocide.

ARTICLE VI. TRIBUNALS FOR TRIAL

Article VI provides:

“Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in
Article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory
of which the act was committed, or by any such international penal tribunal
as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which
shall have accepted its jurisdiction.”

Jurisdiction over the crime cannot be confined to the courts “of the
State in the territory of which the act was committed” because the crime
often involves the heads of such States. It is obvious that state or national
authorities would be unwilling to prosecute and punish themselves. If

8) Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 589, 1876.

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT

5 *

• lie crime of genocide is to be effectively eliminated, the Convention
ireognizes that preventive and punitive measures must be enforced
•i^.iinst the officials of States or nations.

Article VI, moreover, provides for the setting up of an international
|Xtnal tribunal. Just as conventions for the suppression of piracy> slavery,
white. slavery and other crimes impose an obligation on the States to
uniform to these conventions and punish infractions of them, so the
< *uiocide Convention imposes an obligation on the Member States of

• Ik* United Nations to take action against officials of an offending nation.
Since action by means of an international tribunal is anticipated by the
1 < invention, the petitioners call upon the General Assembly to establish
Mich a tribunal to the end that justice may be done and future acts of
genocide prevented.

I here is ample precedent in international law for such action. The

• Jrneva Convention of 1937, which provided for the establishment or
un international court to judge individuals accused of offenses against the
•invention for the Prevention and Punishment of Terrorism, and the
Nuremberg and Tokyo international military tribunals, which had been
<1 up under multilateral agreements, are precedents for international
trials.

The petitioners, therefore, call upon the General Assembly to follow the
precedents of international law in dealing with violators of international
conventions. As did the nations at the Nuremberg trial, the petitioners
demand the punishment of crimes and atrocities which cannot continue
without peril to the civilized world.

ARTICLE VIII. ACTION UNDER THE CHARTER

Article VIII provides:

“Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United
Nations to take action under the Charter of the United Nations as they con-
sider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of the acts of Genocide
«>r any of the other acts enumerated in Article III.”

This provision clearly stipulates enforcement of the Convention through
die Charter and in doing so manifestly supports our contention that the
Convention is an extension of the Charter, inseparable from it. It hut-
1 resses our point that complaints of genocide could be made and pun
1 shed under the provisions of the Charter by proposing “prevention and
'.oppression of the acts of Genocide” under the Charter.

It is accepted, we presume, that the General Assembly is a competent
organ of the United Nations since it has already acted as to the denial of
human rights in the Mindszenty and South African cases to which
reference has previously been made. It is clear, too, that the Security

GENOCIDE

Council has the right and authority to listen to acts relating to genocide,
since genocide is a practice which tends to war and disturbs international
relations. Moreover, the United Nations would have jurisdiction, as Wf
have said, over genocidal crimes, irrespective of the Genocide Convention,
under the Charter principle of promoting “universal respect for an<i
observance of human rights” as well as by virtue of its authority to deal |
with questions relating to the encroachment on progressive developmcm
of international law. (Article XIII, Paragraph (a) of the Charter.)

Article VIII provides that “Any Contracting Party may call upon tin
competent organs of the United Nations to take action under tht
Charter. . . Therefore, the petitioners plead and request that each an<l
every Member State as contracting parties “call upon the competcin
organs of the United Nations to take action.” We particularly plead thai
the representatives of the governments of France, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
the U.S.S.R., the Ukrainian S.S.R., and Byelo-Russian S.S.R. call upon
the United Nations to take action and we call upon them particularly
because their nations and their peoples suffered under this “odioui
scourge.” We plead with these representatives and all representative!,
particularly of the Government of India whose nationals know somethin} 1
of oppression on the basis of race, to exercise their power under Artie I-
VIII of the Convention that the petitioners may obtain a proper hearing
and that “the sounding board” of the United Nations may shock “the
conscience of mankind” to the end that the crimes inflicted against tlir
Negro people of the United States of America may be condemned and
terminated.

ARTICLE IX. THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

Article IX states:

“Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation,
application or fulfillment of the present Convention, including those relating
to the responsibility of a State for Genocide or any of the other acts enumerated
in Article III, should be submitted to the International Court of Justice ai
the request of any parties to the dispute.”

Article IX is one of the most important in the Convention. It create
compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in all dis-
putes relating to the Convention .

Its importance becomes evident by comparison with various provision!
of the Charter. Article 33 imposes upon members of the United Nations
the obligation to seek a solution of disputes by judicial settlement only
if that dispute is such that its continuance is likely to endanger interna-
tional peace and security. Article IX of the Convention, however, contains

THE LAW AND THE INDICTMENT 53

!iu such restriction. Its jurisdiction is obligatory and relates to all disputes
Without exception .

In accordance with Article 94 o£ the Charter, the members of the United
Nutions undertake to comply with the decision of the Court in any case
in which they are parties, i.e., the fulfillment of its judgment constitutes
,11 obligation under the Charter. Furthermore, the same Article stipu-
luics that if a party to a case fails to perform the obligations incumbent
upon it under a judgment of the Court, the other party may have recourse
1.1 1 he Security Council, which may make recommendations or decide
upon measures to give effect to the judgment. Thus the Security Council
(11, iy be involved in cases which otherwise would not come under its
competence.

I unally the Charter imposes on all members the obligation to furnish
1 in- United Nations assistance in any action it takes in accordance with
,|, r Charter. Thus the Security Council’s measures may involve action
l.y all members of the United Nations against a State refusing to comply
with the judgment of the International Court of Justice.

The obligation of the parties to submit disputes under the Genocide
1 (invention to the International Court of Justice is broad in regard to
, object matter. It includes not only the interpretation of the provisions of
iIk Convention, but also its application, and the fulfillment of the
obligations imposed. Thus the obligation to enact necessary legislation
(Article V of the Convention) is relevant, and failure to do so may be
wbmitted if in dispute, as may failure to extradite culprits (Article VII),

, ,i failure to prosecute those responsible for violation of the Convention
(Article VI). In addition, disputes submitted may relate to the re-
.ponsibility of a State for acts of genocide or any other punishable acts.

The petitioners in their prayer for relief (Part IV) call upon the Gen-
ual Assembly and the Contracting Parties to the Convention to submit,
il in dispute, the application and fulfillment of the Genocide Convention
by the United States of America, to the International Court of Justice.

In concluding Part II of this petition concerning The Law and The
Indictment, it might be useful if the petitioners summarize their indict-
ment of the Government of the United States of America. We charge
ihc Government of the United States of America, and submit supporting
evidence in Part III of this petition, with responsibility for, and participa-
tion in, violation of the Genocide Convention by killing members of
1 lie group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the
group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
10 bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, conspiracy
10 commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide,
complicity in genocide, failure to enact domestic legislation enforcing the

GENOCIDE

Genocide Convention as was contracted by becoming a signatory to n,
and violation of international law by its failure to carry out its solemn
pledges under the Charter and under the Convention.

For these offenses, the petitioners ask the General Assembly for relic)
and redress on behalf of the Negro people of the United States now
suffering under the crime of genocide.

PART III

The Evidence

Various acts of genocide against the Negro people of the
United States from January i, 1945 to June 1951, chrono-
logically arranged under those articles and provisions of the
Genocide Convention which they violate.

The Evidence

\i though we believe the evidence tabulated below proves our case, we
appeal to the General Assembly not as a court of law, which it is not,

I mii as the conscience of mankind which it should be. We appeal not to

• lie legal sense of mankind but to its common sense. When a crime is
manifestly and overwhelmingly true, .known to history and notorious to
1 1 if* world, that fact itself becomes part of the evidence before the General
Assembly.

Similarly, although we cannot list it below as part of our evidence,
wc believe that the knowledge gained through the observation and the
lense of every delegate to the General Assembly is in reality a part of

• mii- proof. Any delegate who has visited the capital of the United States
•i Washington, D.C., governed directly by the central government with-

• Mil benefit of local authority, knows of his own knowledge that segrega-
tion and oppression in violation of the Charter and the Convention is
i lie policy and creature of the Government of the United States. Its
mope and extent in the nation’s capital has been attested to by a com-
mittee created by President Harry S. Truman in a document entitled,
"To Secure These Rights.” One of the most eminent officials of the
United Nations, Dr. Ralph Bunche, has openly rejected a high post in
Ins own government’s State Department because of the inhuman segre-
gation in the capital.

Although our evidence voluminously details the crimes of genocide
• ilfered by the Negro people, it falls far short of adequately presenting
irality. The crimes presented are only those experienced by some of the
(iditioners and that marked minority of crimes committed which hap-
pened to receive mention in Negro yearbooks, the Negro press or the
labor press. The vast majority of such crimes are never recorded. This
widespread failure to record crimes against the Negro people is in itself
in index to genocide. Those cases included below appeared in the

GENOCIDE

5 *>

Pittsburgh Courier , The Blac\ Dispatch , the Amsterdam News, among
other Negro newspapers, reports by Tuskegee Institute, the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American
Jewish Congress’ Social Action Commission, the Urban League, the
American Council on Race Relations, the American Civil Liberties
Union, labor papers, and occasional hearings by city, state and Federal
agencies of government. They have been arranged chronologically, be
ginning in 1945 and continuing until June, 1951 under the various head
ings of Articles 11 and III of the Genocide Convention.

ARTICLE II (a). KILLING MEMBERS OF THE GROUP

It cannot be emphasized too often that those killings of members 0!
the group which are recorded are a distinct minority of those actually
killed. This is historically true. Thus former Confederate General Rey
nolds, of Texas, testifying before the Congressional Joint Committee on
Insurrectionary Affairs, said during Reconstruction, “The murder of
Negroes is so common as to render it impossible to keep accurate ao
count of them.” 1 And as recently as 1940, a Congressional report quotes,
“a native Southerner who must remain anonymous” to the effect thai
“countless Negroes are lynched yearly, but their disappearance is shrouded
in mystery, for they are dispatched quietly and without general
knowledge.” 1

We call attention to the number of cases in which the Government of
the United States of America is directly involved, such as the slayings ol
Willie McGee, Edward Honeycutt and the Martinsville Seven, when the
Supreme Court of the United States refused to permit them life despite
its legal power and duty to do so under the Fourteenth Amendmeni
guaranteeing the due process of law and equality before the law which
those executed never in fact received.

We emphasize, too, the several cases enumerated below in which the
Department of Justice, of the executive branch of the Federal Govern
ment, was asked to intervene under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend
ments but refused. If these two amendments were enforced, few of thr
slayings on the basis of race listed below would have occurred.

We call attention, too, to the spreading pattern of murder and violence
in the North as well as the South, similarly protected and participated in
by police officials.

1 945

June 6 . — Denice Harris, 22-year old war veteran, was shot to death in Atlanta #

Georgia, by police and a civilian as he drove a white man to meet a white

1) Civil Rights Congress Survey of Major Developments in the Year 1950 With
Respect to the Negro People, p. 12.

THE EVIDENCE

woman at a rendezvous the pair had made by telephone. The telephone con-
versation was overheard by the woman’s husband. Harris was killed by bul-
lets from a police pistol. He had driven the car at the request of the white
man. The Fulton County coroner’s jury called the killing a “justifiable
homicide.”

loyust 15. — Lila Bella Carter, 16 years old, was raped and murdered at
Vine Island, South Carolina, under circumstances which pointed suspiciously
in a white insurance agent. When the young woman’s father went to authori-
ngs to demand an investigation, he was jailed. Miss Carter’s neck and jaw
were broken and she had been placed face down in a pool of water in order
in give the impression that she had met her death by drowning. No action
was taken against the rapist.

Inyust 21 . — Ervin Jones was fatally wounded in his home in Portland, Ore-
yon, when three police officers came to the house to search the premises. They
Ltd no warrant and failed to identify themselves as officers. The Jones
lamily believed them to be burglars. Jones defended his home against their
entry. One of the officers went to the rear of the house, entered, and shot
Jones in the back with a sa wed-off shot gun, killing him. The coroner’s jury
exonerated the police and a grand jury subsequently refused to indict them.
member 9. — Moses Green, veteran of World War I, was shot to death by
l wo Aiken County law officers near Elenton, South Carolina. The Officers
were deputy sheriffs who were identified. Green was returning from town
m his truck and as he stepped out into his own yard he was shot without
warning.

October 10. — Jesse Payne was taken from the jail at Madison, Florida, and
allot to death by a lynch mob. Payne had been removed from the lynch-
|*i oof state prison and taken to an unguarded one-story shack jail at Madison
.md left there unguarded. On the date of his arrest, July 4, he was attacked
and wounded by a posse. Attorney General J. Tom Watson of Florida
recommended the suspension of the sheriff in charge of the jail, stating that
1 lie evidence indicated that the jail had not been broken into but that Payne
bad been delivered up to the lynchers by law officers. Nevertheless, the two
Madison County grand juries refused to indict the sheriff and Governor
Millard Caldwell refused to suspend him.

October 29. — Police emptied their guns into an unidentified Negro man at
Kill Avenue and 144th Street, in New Ycr{ City. Eyewitneses stated that
I lie man, with his hands raised in surrender after having been pursued by
.1 police patrol car, was alighting from a Buick sedan when he was shot.
When a crowd gathered to protest, police reinforcements arrived and clubbed
1 lie protesters. Several witnesses went to Harlem Hospital where the man
lay bleeding. This and subsequent delegations were unable to find out the
man’s name.

< October 29. — The body of Sam McFadden, veteran, was found floating in the
Suwanee River, near Live Oa\, Florida. Governor Millard Caldwell’s own
investigator and twenty witnesses gave evidence that McFadden had been
lynched. Evidence was also given that the Brandford, Fla., police chief, a
wealthy turpentine operator reputed to use peon labor, and another man
were the lynchers. According to the evidence, McFadden, who had left his
borne to buy groceries, was put into a car and driven in the direction of the
liver. His body was discovered by two fishermen, and the date of the lynch-
ing was fixed by the authorities as approximately September 21. The Suwanee

GENOCIDE

grand jury refused to indict any of the three. Later, the ex-marshal of Brand
ford was tried for allegedly subjecting McFadden, who was 60 years old, ji
a “trial by ordeal” and then forcing him to drown himself. He was chargfll
with arresting McFadden, beating him with a whip and pistol and makiii)
him jump in the river. The ex-marshal was convicted, sentenced to on*
year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

N ovember. — Seventy-year-old Mrs. Nicey Brown of Selma , Alabama , wit
beaten to death by a drunken policeman who was off duty. He beat her ovll
the head with a bottle. The officer was acquitted in November, 1945, by ill
all-white jury which deliberated a few minutes. The attorney for the polifr
man stated at the trial: “If we convict this brave man who is upholding tli
banner of white supremacy by his actions, then we may as well give ill
our guns to the n s and let them run the black belt.”

November. — A new trial which had been ordered by the U.S. Supreme Conn
freed a Baker County, Ga., sheriff and two former white police officers I...
the death by beating of Robert Hall in October, 1943. Hall had been arresi*.'
at his home near Newton , Georgia, on January 29, 1943. The next day ilu
sheriff and two other whites beat him about the head with a blackjack until
he fell unconscious. His death occurred soon afterwards.

November 1. — Fourteen-year-old Wilbert Cohen was killed when two but
lets from a policeman’s gun were fired at him as he was leaving a friend'*
house. No action was taken against the policeman either by the grand jury im
by the police department.

November 17— St. Claire Pressley, war veteran, was killed in Johnsonvillt
South Carolina. As he stepped off the train in Johnsonville on his way t«*
Hemingway, S. C., Pressley was arrested on suspicion of implication in .1
minor disturbance which had occurred several days before. Pressley offered
^o resistance to arrest, but as he was being marched down the street, ih»
policeman suddenly pulled the trigger of his gun and killed the Ncgrn
veteran.

December . — Charges were made that Pvt. Eric L. Bolton of Chicago died
en route to France of an inter-cerebral hemorrhage “possibly caused by In*
head being rammed against a cement wall.” The words are those of Capt
Earl J. Carroll of San Francisco. General Eisenhower ordered an investigu
tion into the death.

December. — Phinizee Summerour was shot and killed by a white man on
an Atlanta , Georgia, bus, following an argument over smoking. A grand
jury in December, 1945, freed the white man.

December.— Two persons were killed when a reign of terror swept over the
Negro community of Union Springs , Alabama. A third Negro was wounded
and a fourth was hounded out of town. The white policeman who was tin*
murderer was known. Edgar Thomas was murdered when the white police
man heard him discuss the Negro question with a friend in Thomas’ own
store. Jesse Hightower was also murdered. Ed Day Gary, a veteran, had
one eye shot out. Rev. J. L. Pinckney was ordered to leave town becauv
he had been a witness to Thomas’ murder.

December 23.— Mr. and Mrs. H. O’Day Short and their two small daughter*
were burned to death two days before Christmas, 1945, in a fire of incendiai)
origin set by persons who did not want them to move into a “white neigli
borhood” in Fontana, California. The family had received threatening note*
and the police had told the family they were “out of bounds.” There was n

THE EVIDENCE

flrctricity in the Short’s home and neighbors knew that the family was
l« mporarily using lamps. While the Shorts were away, people broke into
I heir home, sprayed the interior with an inflammable chemical, and left.
When the Shorts returned, the father struck a match, and the lamp fuel,
believed to be kerosene, exploded. All four were fatally burned.

Mr’, ember 26. — Walter Campbell, union organizer of the Food, Tobacco,
Agricultural and Allied Workers of America, CIO, was stabbed to death
it Little Roc\, Arkansas. He was organizing workers, particularly Negroes,
against a 12 hour working day and 50c per hour pay. The confessed slayer
was set free.

1946

February. — Frank Allen, taxi driver, was killed by police of Memphis, Ten-
tirssee . A field report of the American Council on Race Relations charac-
irrized the killing as “suspicious.” The two white officers said that Allen
shot at them. However, another version stated that Allen was unarmed; that
1 lie officers dragged Allen from his cab and shot him in a vacant lot.

1 'binary . — James Mangum, 17 years old, was sentenced to death for alleged
“iape.” He charged that his “confession” had been forced from him by
hi vitality. Nevertheless, the U.S. Supreme Court twice denied his appeals,
uid the state parole board refused to pardon him or commute his sentence.

I tbruary 5. — A policeman of Freeport, L. I., New Yor\, shot and killed Pfc.

( i iables Ferguson and his brother, Alfonso Ferguson. A third brother,
Shaman Third Class Joseph Ferguson was wounded in the shoulder and
1 In own into the brig, while a fourth brother, Richard Ferguson was arrested
and sentenced to 100 days in jail. The brothers had protested jim crow
*11 a local cafe, where the proprietor had refused them service because they
were Negroes. After the killings, Freeport police threw a cordon around
i he bus terminal and stationed men with tommyguns and tear gas there,
•-.lying that they wanted to “prevent a possible uprising of local Negroes.”
Investigation proved that none of the brothers was armed, and that they
were peaceably on their way from the cafe to the bus station when they were
.it tacked by the policeman. Witnesses, including two white women, made
affidavits that the brothers were not disorderly. The killer-policeman was
exonerated by the Chief of Police and by the Nassau Grand Jury. An
investigation ordered by Governor Dewey after five months of organized
protest, whitewashed the police, the grand jury which refused to indict the
policeman, and the District Attorney of Nassau County. The investigation
also denied the lawyer for the slain brothers’ families the right to cross-
examination and the right to put specific questions to witnesses.

\ rbruary 9. — Pvt. Nathaniel Jackson was shot to death by a guard with a
lommygun at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Granville, Wisconsin, after
.1 group of prisoners complained that meat had been omitted from their
lunch. Two other Negroes not named in newspaper accounts, were injured
m the ensuing attack by guards.

I rbruary 11. — Accused of a robbery and murder that had occurred on Febru-
ncene of the crime. The U.S. Supreme Court set aside the decision but
.iry 11, 1946, Edward Patton was sentenced to die by the criminal court
ol Lauderdale County, Mississippi. Attorneys for Patton showed that his
"confession” had been forced from him, he had been grilled for three con-
secutive days, and had been twice taken to the woods to be shown the

62 GENOCIDE

Patton was again convicted at Meridian, Mississippi, in Sept., 1948.

February 17. — Timothy Hood, veteran, was shot to death in Bessemer, Al*
bama, by a police chief. Previously, a street car conductor had fired five shift I
into Hood’s body because Hood had attempted to pull down a jim crot [
sign. Hearing that Hood was in a nearby house, wounded, the police chill I
entered the home and fired into Hood’s brain. The Bessemer coroner caljr.
the acts “justifiable homicide.”

February 25. — Five hundred National Guardsmen swarmed into the Ncgft
section of Columbia, Tennessee, firing riot guns and other firearms. Polio
opened up with machine guns on the Negroes barricaded in their home.
Every Negro business establishment in the two black business areas w«.
completely wrecked.

The terror against the Negro community (Mink Slide) began official!*
the day before when Mrs. Gladys Stephenson and her son James, a veteran
had an aigument with a radio repair man. The repair man kicked ainl
slapped Mrs. Stephenson and tore the sleeves out of her coat. Her son, Jam.
Stephenson, came to her defense and was arrested immediately and beatrn
by the police. As a lynch mob formed on Court Square, friends spiritnl
James Stephenson and his mother out of the state and the Negro community
prepared to defend itself from attack and prevent any lynchings from cm
curring. A large number of Negroes were arrested and jailed.

William Gordon and James Johnson were shot and killed on February
28 by police while they were being held in jail. Napoleon Stewart was alu>
shot and wounded while in jail. The three were shot by five policemen at
three-yard range. Gordon and Johnson might have been saved after tin
shooting had they been taken at once to the City Hospital. But this hospital
was for “whites only” and they were driven over rough roads 43 miles ■
Nashville instead.

John Blackwell was nearly killed by police beatings. An all-white Maury
County Grand Jury began to hand down indictments against members of tb
Negro community on March 23. Subsequent legal events took place over «
period of many months.

The trial itself was characterized by Vincent Sheean, special writer for lb
New Yor\ Herald Tribune , as a “travesty of justice.” It was proved by tb
defense that the Negroes in the area had good reason to fear a lynching sino
the area had a record of many. It was further proved by the defense th»l
James Stephenson had been removed from the jail and sent out of the stai*
only a short time before a lynch mob collected at the jail demanding hu
life; that the mob gathered at Court Square spoke openly of lynch plam
The defense also presented more than 200 witnesses, Negro and white, ft
prove that Negroes are systematically excluded from the grand and petit
juries of that county. The trial judge refused to eliminate prospective juror*
who admitted past or present membership of the Klan; those who said they
approved of the Klan’s activities, or those who said they would give le«
credjjnce to a Negro than to a white witness.

February 25.— Kenny Long, veteran, was shot to death by a highway patrol
man in El Campo, Texas. Together with his brother, Meron Long, also
a veteran, and a cousin, Cosby Clay. Kenny Long was at a filling station
drinking soda pop. A white lounger began to order Clay about, then called
a police car. A deputy sheriff in the car stated: “Don’t you know I hate 11
goddam n rp” The three white officers began slapping and punching the

THE EVIDENCE 63

three Negroes, and one of them shot Kenny Long dead. Meron Long and
Cosby Clay were handcuffed, beaten and arrested.

March 12. — James Lewis, 14, and Charles Trudell, 15, condemned to death
at Meadville, Mississippi. They were charged with a pistol slaying, and
indicted, tried and convicted— all in one day. The case was appealed to the
Mississippi Supreme Court, which overruled a suggestion of error in the
trial. They were refused a pardon by Governor Fielding Wright, and were
executed.

Spring. — A Veteran’s Justice Committee met April 9, 1946, to press an investi-
gation into the killing of two members of the 1310th Engineer Regiment on
May 22, 1945 Camp Lucky Strike, St. Valerie, France. The two were
I fc. Allen Leftridge and T/5 Frank Glenn. They were shot dead while
unarmed by two white guards posted at a Red Cross tent -with orders to
keep Negroes from talking to French girls employed there. Court-martial
proceedings had absolved the killers. At a subsequent hearing before the
Veteran’s Administration, Alfred A. Duckett, formerly of the 1310th cavalry,
testified that there had been prejudice against Negro soldiers at the camp.
He also stated that a French civilian employee on the post had told him
that the guards had orders to prevent Negro GIs from talking with French
women.

tpril. — George Collins, a Negro shore patrolman, was killed early in April,
1946 at the Navy Marine base at McAlester, Oklahoma, by a local police
officer. Collins had been stationed at the naval ammunition depot. Negroes
in the community stated that Collins’ death was the third such incident
since the establishment of the Navy Marine Base a few years previously.
They declared that the city police carried on a veritable reign of terror
against the Negro shore patrolmen; that on numerous occasions they
swooped down on the Negro section, making searches and seizures with-
out warrants.

May 1.— At a secret meeting of the Ku Klux Klan’s Klavalier Klub whipping
squad held at the klavern No. 1, 198 Vi Whitehall Street, Atlanta, Georgia ,
Chief Ass-Tearer Cliff Vittur warned the Klavaliers to be more careful,
criticizing them for using the cab of a Negro cab driver they had killed a
short time before, and for not wiping their fingerprints from the steering
wheel. Had he not called a brother Klansman” on the police force to wipe
the wheel, the Klavaliers involved would be in “hot water,” Vittur said.
Atlanta newspapers the day following the lynching reported merely that
the body of a Negro man had been found on Pryor Road, “apparently the
victim of an auto accident.” Inside reports on this Klavalier meeting were
turned over to the Georgia Department of Law and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation by Stetson Kennedy, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,
but no prosecution was forthcoming.

May 18. — William Arthur was killed in Baltimore, Maryland, while allegedly
resisting arrest by police officers. The following day, May 19, Wilbur
Bundley was killed by an officer. Nine witnesses stated that he was shot
in the back while running. A few days later, Isaac Jackson was shot and
killed by a policeman. A number of organizations began a protest against
consistent police brutality in Baltimore.

lane. — Elliott Brooks of Gretna, Louisiana, was killed by the Gretna chief
of police because he knew too much” concerning the disappearance of

GENOCIDE

another Negro who was a prisoner, according to affidavits filed with the
Gretna branch of the NAACP.

July. — Sutter Matthews was killed in Moultrie, Georgia some time in July,
1946, according to a county coroner’s report made on July 31, 1946. The
killers had laid, the corpse across the tracks of the Georgia Northern Rail
road, but Matthews was already dead, killed with a blunt instrument.

July 17. — Pvt. Samuel Hicks was discovered dying of a fractured skull on a
road near Geiger Army Field near Spokane, Washington. A white soldin
stated that he had seen Hicks slugged by two whites and left on the roa<l
There had been feeling against Negro soldiers at the field for some time,
When Hicks’ death was discovered on July 17, 1946, Negroes started a
search for the killers. Then a force of white MPs, armed with guns, club*,
and tear gas, invaded the area. One MP carefully aimed and fired at a flee-
ing Negro soldier. Two tear gas bombs were tossed into the Negro soldiers*
quarters.

July 20. — One of the comparatively few Negroes who voted in the 194ft
Georgia elections was a veteran, Macio Snipes. Snipes voted in Rupert’s
district of Taylor County. On July 20, 1946 he was dragged from his home
and killed by four white men. He died of pistol wounds. The killers were
freed. The killing of Snipes was one of the first fruits of the election cam
paign waged by Eugene Talmadge. Talmadge had warned Negroes to keep
away from the polls. One of the methods used to intimidate the Negro com
munity was the posting of signs on Negro churches which read: “The first
Negro to vote will never vote again.’*

July 24. — The body of Leon McTatie was found in a Sunflower County
bayou near Lexington, Mississippi. The condition of the body showed that
McTatie had been lynched. Six white men were charged with whipping
him to death for stealing a saddle. They were acquitted by a jury after ten
minutes deliberation.

July 25. — Mr. and Mrs. Roger Malcolm and Mr. and Mrs. George Dorsky
were lynched near Monroe, Georgia . Dorsey was a World War II veteran.
A group of 20 to 30 white men beat the two women, then lined the four
against trees and shot them dead with a sixty-shot broadside from rifles,
pistols and shotguns. Roger Malcolm, a sharecropper, had quarreled with
his landlord about the disposition of the crop. Malcolm had also objected
to advances made to his wife by a member of the landlord’s family. After
the quarrel, a lynch mob gathered on July 14. It dispersed, but gathered
again on July 25. Eugene Talmadge, white supremacy candidate for gov
ernor of Georgia made an official visit to the landlord’s family. The Federal
Government investigated, but took no action against anyone. Walter White,
secretary of the NAACP, revealed on August 6, 1946, that Atty. Gen. Tom
Clark had the names of six men charged with the lynching in his possession
On October 28, 1946, Clark told the Herald Tribune forum in regard to
the Monroe lynchings that “the jurisdiction of the federal government
depend|upon a thin thread of law. The Federal statutes give me the pown
to prosecute only when a person has been deprived of a federally secured
right. The right of life, liberty and property, the Supreme Court hai
repeatedly held, is not a federally secured right.” The federal jury reported
in December that it was unable to find anyone “guilty of violating the civil
rights statute.”

July 29. — Harrison Johnson, sharecropper, was shot to death near Eatonton,

THE EVIDENCE

Georgia. His body was perforated with six revolver bullets and he was
beaten with a gun butt. The slaying took place on the highway and the
killer was given his freedom at once by the sheriff.
iugust. — James Walker was shot dead by a hail of bullets as he sat on his
father’s porch at El\o, South Carolina. The shots were fired by a white
lilling station owner and his brother who had quarrelled with Walker.
August 3. — John J. Gilbert, chalk mill worker, was found shot to death by
l be roadside near his home at Gordon, Georgia. Investigation showed that
lie had been active in the work of union organization and was killed on his
way to work by whites who hated unions.

August 3. — Buddy Wolf was murdered by a deputy sheriff in Hattiesburg,
Mississippi.

August 3. — While his mother stood 100 yards away, J. C. Farmer, a veteran,
was shot dead near Bailey, North Carolina , by a posse of twenty to twenty-
live men who swooped down on him in eight cars. Farmer had been waiting
lor a bus when he was attacked by a policeman, and a scuffle started. Farmer
was lynched one hour later.

I it gust 8. — John C. Jones, a veteran, was lynched on August 8, 1946, near
Minden, Louisiana, shortly after his release from jail when a charge against
him collapsed. On August 15 his lash-welted body was found in a lake two
miles from Minden, indicating that floggers had operated on Jones before
he was dumped in the lake. The deputy coroner reported “multiple bruises
and contusions apparently made by a wide leather belt or a thick strap.” At
1 be same time and in the same place, Albert Harris, Jr., 17 years old, was
shot at by the lynchers. He feigned death until they had quit the scene and
then he fled the state. Young Harris’ father, Albert Harris, Sr., was beaten
by Minden mobsters in an attempt to force him to tell his son’s whereabouts.
Investigation showed that when Jones returned from the army, he began
suit to recover the rights to oil-producing land owned by his grandfather and
leased to an oil syndicate. The land was producing thousands of barrels of
oil per month for' which Jones’ family received less than $1 monthly. In
February 1947, six white men including the Minden chief of police were
identified as Jones’ lynchers by Albert Harris, Jr. Two of the six, deputy
sheriffs, went on trial in Shreveport before a federal jury. Young Harris told
the jury how he saw the lynchers beat and burn Jones with a blow torch.

I le saw Jones’ wrists chopped off with a cleaver; he saw Jones’ eyes pop out
of his head from the white-hot flame of the torch. Young Harris also told
how he and Jones had been released from the Minden jail into the arms of
.1 waiting mob. Both Harris, Jr. and Harris, Sr. had to be closely guarded
by a number of U.S. marshals during the trip to Shreveport and during the
trial, because of KKK violence let loose in the area. All of the accused
lynchers were freed.

September 27. — Walter Lee Johnson, a veteran, was fatally wounded in
Atlanta, Georgia, by a street car motorman. Johnson was standing on an
Atlanta street when the street car drew to a stop. Johnson recognized one of
the passengers inside and called out to him jokingly. The motorman thought
the joke was meant for him, he left the car, stepped to the sidewalk, and
shot Johnson dead. The motorman was freed.

October. — Berry Branch, elderly Negro citizen of Houston, Texas, was killed
by a bus driver.

November 1. — Jose Adrano Trujillo Seijas, a veteran, and the adopted son

GENOCIDE

of the brother of President Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, w;n
shot to death by a deputy sheriff in Bunnell, Florida. Young Seijas had
protested Jim Crow practices in a local cafe. The deputy sheriff had been
called to the cafe by phone. He went up to Seijas who was seated in hifl
own car outside the cafe and shot him through the chest.

November 2. — Charles W. Scott died in the prison infirmary in Washington ,
D. C. Injured in the crash of an allegedly stolen car, Scott was taken i«»
the hospital where he received twenty minutes of treatment. When he ap
peared in court, the judge ordered that he be returned to the hospital as hr
was too ill to remain in court. He was brought back to court on that same
day, but the judge again ordered him taken away for treatment. He died
within twenty-four hours. The National Negro Congress and other orgain
zations demanded a full investigation of why Scott had not been kept in thr
hospital and whether Scott was beaten in jail after a policeman involved in
the crash had died.

November 15. — A seventy-five-man sheriff’s posse hunted down and killed
George Hill, a sharecropper, at Toomsboro, Georgia.

December.— William Daniels, a veteran, was shot to death in Westfield,
Alabama , a small mining town outside Birmingham. It was near Christmas
and Daniels was doing some shopping in the Tennessee Coal, Iron and
Railroad commissary store. A white woman employee complained that
Daniels had jostled her. In response to her complaint, a guard called Daniels
outside the store and shot him dead.

December . — Nine white farmers charged with the lynching of James Edward
Person in Danville, Illinois, in October, 1942, entered a plea of nolo con
tendere and were ordered to pay a fine of $200 each and court costs.

1 9 4 7

February 17. — Willie Earle was removed from the county jail at Pickens,
South Carolina, by an armed mob and lynched between Pickens and Green-
ville, South Carolina. Earle was being held in jail on a charge of robbing
and wounding a Greenville cab driver. The mob had received Earle from
the hands of the jailer and when the lynching was over, they dumped his
knife-ripped, shot-sieved body near a rural slaughterhouse. The head was
gaping with shot gun wounds on both sides and the torso had been mutilated
by knives. A telephone call to the Greenville mortuary told where Earle’s
remains could be found. Thirty-one white men, twenty-nine of them taxi
drivers, were arrested, and full confessions obtained from twenty-six. At the
trial in Greenville, most of the members of the lynch party admitted their
share in the deed. They said they had gone to Pickens in eight or nine cabs
and abducted Earle, that en route to the lynching several of them had
beaten Earle in the car. He was then knifed five times and blasted to death
with a shotgun. All the mob was freed, although twenty-six signed confes-
sions describing their plan to do the deed and its actual commission.

May. Sardis, Georgia. Joe Nathan Roberts, 23-year-old veteran, was shot to
death when he failed to say “yes sir” to a white man. A student at Temple
University in Philadelphia on the G.I. Bill of Rights, Roberts was visiting
relatives. No one was tried for the killing.

May. — Henry Gilbert was beaten to death in the county jail near La Grange,
Georgia. No one was tried. |

THE EVIDENCE 6 ;

May 4. — Camp Hill, Alabama. Mrs. May Noyes, 22-year-old pregnant mother
of three children was shot to death by Albert Fluey. Mrs. Noyes was only
one victim of Huey’s one-man reign of terror in the Negro community after
In* had an argument with a Negro veteran, Australia Farrow. Huey shot
up the Negro community, beat and slapped several Negro men and women,
mid when Mrs. Noyes ran away from him, he shot her in the^ hip. She
dumped to the street and Huey kicked her, shouting “get up.” She got
Up and as she began to run, Huey shot her again in the back. She crawled on
lo the porch of a white woman, Mrs. Emory Reeves, and died there. Huey
was arrested, but was later released on $1000 bail and no charges were ever
placed against him. Instead Farrow was charged with attempted murder
and the testimony of Huey*was used to jail and frame him.

May 5. — The United States Supreme Court denied the appeal of the two Negro
children, James Lewis, Jr., 14, and Charles Trudell, 15, of Natchez ,
Mississippi. The boys had been convicted of killing a white farmer in 1946.
They were electrocuted after the denial by the Supreme Court. (See 1946)

May <j. — Eighteen-year-old Willie Francis of St. Martinsville, Louisiana, went
lo the electric chair for the second time. The first attempt at his execution
lud been on May 3, 1946 but the electric switch had failed to operate. Many
organizations tried to save him on the ground that a second attempt at
< Irctrocution would be “cruel and inhuman treatment.” No court would
giant the plea and Francis died in the chair.

May 24. — Ernest Gilbert, 68-year-old farmer, was shot to death at his home
in Gretna, Virginia. Three unmasked white men entered Gilbert’s home
.ind demanded the right to look into his safe. When he refused permission,
they attacked him. When he defended himself, they riddled him with
Imllets, killing him with five pistol wounds.

May 27. — The body of William Pittman, taxi driver, was found, horribly
mutilated on the side of a country road near Roc\y Mount, North Carolina.
lie had been dead. for some time. The story was hushed up, but a report
was given to officials of the National Negro Congress on May 27, 1947.
Tinman was believed to have been the victim of lynchers. His head was
bashed in, the legs and arms were severed and the body split open. His taxi
was discovered in the nearby woods.

june 7. — Willie G. Andrews was shot and killed in Warrenton, North Caro-
lina, by Police Chief Will Carter of Norlina, who claimed Andrews tried to
Arize his gun.

I otic 30. — Louisiana. Wesley Thomas, 31, Negro woodchopper, was shot in
the back and killed by W. D. Thompson, 21-year-old white. Thomas had
engaged in an argument that morning with a white farmer for whom he
worked and from whom he was asking back pay. A posse was looking for
bun when Thompson found him and shot him as he was running toward
lus house, “He tried to run into the house and I let him have it,” Thompson
■iid. He was exonerated on the grounds that there were weapons in the
bouse towards which Thomas was running.

Inly. — Elijah Myles, 21, was shot in the back by Ferdinand J. Mohr, fore-
man of the Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Agricultural Dump. Dr. George
I listing, pathologist at the Charity Hospital of New Orleans declared the
Inal bullet had entered Myles’ back though Mohr claimed the dead man
threatened him. In spite of this evidence, a no-true bill was returned in the
rase.

68 GENOCIDE

July ii. — E ight Negro prisoners in the Anguilla Stockade, Brunswick,

were mowed down by pistol and rifle fire. The men were part of a glj>uy 1
of twenty-seven that had refused to work in a snake-infested swamp land |
without boots. Back at the camp Warden W. G. Worthy became enragcJ
with the men, opened fire and was joined in the massacre by four otliet I
guards. Two other Negroes were wounded.

July ly. — William Brown, 83, was slain by Charles Ventril, game warden 0! ,
Point Coupee Parish , Louisiana . Brown was hunting at the time, as w m
his daily custom for many years. Ventril, white game warden, came aloitl
and engaged Brown in an argument concerning the contents of his hunfiilj
bag, took him to the edge of the woods, and shot him in the back of tin
head. The warden is alleged to have walked to a nearby white sharecroppfi
and told him, “I just shot a nigger. Let his folks know.” This slaying win
uncovered by a white labor union official. According to him the officiil
coroner’s report stated: “The Negro’s gun was cocked; the killing was jusii 1
fiable because the warden shot in self-defense.”

August. — Versie Johnson, 35-year-old saw mill worker of Prentiss , Mississippi
was shot to death by a posse after he had been accused of raping a wlm*
woman. Three white law officers were arrested and charged with man
slaughter. They were exonerated.

August 11. — James Walker, Jr. was shot by a white man, Bill Craig, afin
an altercation with a group of Craig’s friends. Craig was later exonerated
by a Coroner’s jury, which ruled justifiable homicide.

October 12. — Beverly Lee, 13-year-old youth, was shot by Policeman Lowi
Begin of Detroit, Michigan. Mrs. Francis Vonbatten of 1839 Pi ne testified
that she saw the dead youth and another walking down the street, saw th*
squad car approach. She heard “Stop, you little so-and-so” and then a shot
The officer was subsequently cleared by Coroner Lloyd K. Babcock.

November 6, — Roland T. Price, 20-year-old veteran, was shot to death in
Rochester, New Yor by six patrolmen who fired a total of twenty-five bul
lets into his body. Price had just come from seeing the “Freedom Train
and was short-changed in the Royal Palm Restaurant. He argued with ih<
bartender who called Policeman William Hamill. Hamill rushed into tli»
restaurant, drew his gun, forced Price into the street, where he and the othef
officers began shooting. All were cleared.

November 15. — Walter Palmer of Edwards, Mississippi, a Negro veteran,
was shot dead after being arrested at a party. Palmer was shot in the bail
and the officer claimed he tried to escape.

Case was reported to Atty. Gen. Clark.

November 16. — Raymond Couser was walking down Montrose Street in
Philadelphia when eye witnesses saw Patrolman Frank Cacurro stalking
him with a drawn revolver. Cacurro fired, Couser staggered, wounded. Th-
patrolman fired three more shots and Couser dropped dead. The patrolman
claimed he had been dispatched to the Couser home after being notified
of a quarrel and that he shot Couser because he thought Couser was armed

November 16. — Charles Fletcher of Philadelphia was slain by Patrolman
Manus McGettingan wlfo claimed he shot after receiving a call about a
prowler. Fletcher worked at the Exide Battery Co. for ten years and had n«>
police record.

November 23. — Charles Smith was slain by Marvin Matthews and Wyall
Adams in Lillington, North Carolina, while they engaged in a reign <•!

THE EVIDENCE 69

(•trior in the Negro community. At the same time, the terrorists shot Daniel

I m< Brasford. They shot from a car and attempted to run other Negroes
ilown. Eugene Williams, William Talton, A. E. Woods, Robert Perry and
ifvcral other Negroes likewise testified that the terrorists had attacked them
I »i c* v iously . A Harnett County jury freed the men after deliberating 27

minutes. ,

hi ember* — Elmore Bolling, 30, was found riddled with shot gun and
pistol shots in Lowndesboro , Alabama. Clark Luckie, a white man who

I I aimed the Negro had insulted his wife over the telephone, was arrested for
1 lie killing, but was later released.

Ut' ember 17. — Charles Curry, 23, was slain by Nolan O. Ray, Dallas, Texas
policeman, during an altercation on a trolley bus. Ray, in civilian clothes
lt i the time, had ordered a Negro who had sat down beside him to move.

| lie Negro passengers became incensed and Ray jumped to his feet, drew
Ins revolver, and ordered all Negroes to take your hands out of your
pockets.” When Curry did not comply fast enough, Ray shot him dead.
Il<- claimed he thought he saw Curry drawing a knife from his pocket.
There was no weapon found on the dead man, however. According to wit-
nesses, Curry had neither moved nor spoken during the entire incident. Two
days after the slaying, Police Chief Carl Hansen dismissed Ray from the
force. He was subsequently indicted for murder.

1948

Unuary 28. — James Harmon, Camden, New Jersey, 30-year-old construction
worker, was arrested and held incommunicado for twenty-five days. He then
1 lied under mysterious circumstances at Lakeland General Hospital. Harmon
was arrested by Patrolmen William Yeager and Joseph Hooven and booked
drunk and disorderly. But relatives and friends declared Harmon was a
teetotaller. When he died his eye was swollen and the cause of death was
admitted to be blood poisoning, after officials first claimed he died of heart
disease. A severe beating was suspected at the hands of police.

[ ebrttary 2. — George Thomas, Negro youth, was shot dead by a Kosciusko,
Mississippi policeman who claimed he tried to escape after being arrested.

( asc was reported to Atty. Gen. Clark.

) ! fbruary iy. — Roy Cyril Brooks, member of Local 309, Food, Tobacco and
Agricultural Workers, was shot down in cold blood in the crowded bright
t , unlit public square of Gretna, Louisiana. Brooks’ murderer was a uni-
formed policeman, Alvin Bladsacker. Brooks had become involved in a
minor altercation with the driver of a bus. Bladsacker, a traffic cop in the
square, heard the driver’s raised voice, entered the bus, and immediately
slugged Brooks across the back of his head. Blood spurted from the base
of Brooks’ skull, and Bladsacker then prodded him out of the bus, announc-
ing that he was going to take him to the police station. As they walked
down the square, Bladsacker hauled out a .38 revolver and held it against
Brooks’ back. Brooks half turned and attempted to tell the policeman that
lie had done nothing wrong. Bladsacker shot him twice. Brooks fell on his
hack in the street and forty minutes later he was dead. The original incident
with the bus driver had been this: a Negro woman passenger, after paying
her nickel fare, discovered she was on the wrong bus and asked for her

GENOCIDE

nickel back. When the driver refused, Brooks gave her a nickel, she left, m
Brooks asked to ride on the woman's already paid fare. It was while tli
driver was loudly refusing Brooks that Bladsacker heard him. A Commiin '
for Justice in the Brooks case protested and under pressure, Bladsacker wp
indicted for manslaughter. He was later released and put back on his jnl

Wee\ of February 28, — James Tolliver, 40, of Little Roc\, Arkansas, wm
beaten to death by Policeman Blaylock. Tolliver was trying to help « I
drunken woman when Blaylock came up behind him and struck him in ll»>
head. He died almost instantly.

March 7. — Rayfield Davis, 35, was slain by Horace Miller during a “civil
rights squabble.” A Mobile County ( Alabama ) Grand Jury freed the killff

Wce\ of March 21. — Ellis Hudson of Nacogdoches , Texas, 50, was shot Hi
death by a Texas constable, one Heppenstead. Hudson had come to coim
to arrange bail for his son, Ellis, Jr., who had been beaten by the same ofliifi
when the boy did not address him as “sir.”

Wee{ of March 21. — Samuel Bacon, 55, was shot to death in a Fayette, Mu
sissippi jail by Town Marshal S. D. Coleman. Bacon, an employee of ik
Firestone Rubber Co. of Akron, Ohio, had been arrested and taken from
a bus while on his way to Natchez, Miss., to visit relatives.

March 27, — Ike Madden, 27, was slain by Birmingham, Alabama police win-
claimed he was “resisting arrest.”

March 29. — John Johnson, 50, was slain by Birmingham, Alabama police win*
claimed he was “resisting arrest.”

Wee\ of April 4. — Otis Newsom, of Wilson, North Carolina, 25-year-old ww
veteran and father of three children, was shot and killed by N. C. Strick*
land, gas station operator. Strickland killed Newsom after the Negro <l«
manded that he properly service his car with brake fluid he had just pm
chased.

April 19. — Almas Shaw, of Birmingham, Alabama, was killed during a figlii
with police. Police claimed he ran and that when they caught him, he ki
his head on the base of stone building. Killing was third in three weeks k
police, as terrorist group Black Raiders resumed operations.

April 27.— Marion Franklin Noble, 19, was slain by Birmingham, Alabama
policeman C. L. Borders who claimed the youth attacked him when k
was arresting him.

April 30. — Eugene Ward, 1910 13th Avenue, Bessemer, Alabama, was shot to
death by Patrolmen Lawton Grimes and Sam Montgomery. The cop|
claimed Ward “resisted arrest and reached for a knife.”

May 2. Hosea Carter, of Sandy HooJ^, Mississippi, a Negro, was foimil
dead of a shot gun blast in the chest. Deputy Sheriff T. W. White reporml
that a white man “whose name I don’t remember” killed Carter. Whj
claimed that Carter and his brother Willie and a third Negro, William
Harris, tried to enter a home and that a “neighbor” accosted them and shot
Carter. “He did what any decent white man would have done,” Whitt
said of the unnamed murderer. The other two Negroes were jailed.

May 5.— Henry Rogers of ifarlem, New Yor\ City, was killed by 32nd Pm
cinct Patrolman Thomas Hollinsworth. The policeman was called to settle
an argument between Rogers and Clifton Smith, superintendent of a buihl
ing at 301 West 151st Street. Police claim Rogers attacked Hollinsworth*
and he shot in self-defense.

May 23. — Augusta, Georgia. Prison guard ordered unidentified Negro prisonn

THE EVIDENCE 71

into sngke infested ditch. Prisoner refused, was severely beaten and died.

Inn, 5. — Ike Crawford, 29-year-old prisoner in the Richmond County, Georgia
Mockade, died after he was beaten to a pulp by guards David L. Turner,

I lorace Wingard, and Alvin Jones. The men were indicted for “prison
bmtality.” A coroner’s jury, however, reported that Crawford died of a
liver disease.

Inn r 12. — Jesse Jefferson of Jackson, Georgia, was slain on his farm, after
two white men drove up behind his wagon and accused him of not giving
them room to pass by.

fnly 12. — James Burts, 23, was slain by policemen R. C. Wooddall and S. C.
Kelly in Greenville, South Carolina. Burts was beaten to death with a black-
jack and a night stick and died in General Hospital. Dr. J. R. Bryson, Jr.
Mid Burts was “in a pretty bad condition when he arrived.” A General
Sessions Court jury freed the policeman in November.

Inly 14. — Willie Milton, of Brooklyn, New York [ y was shot in the back by
Patrolman Kilcommons. Milton, a tenant leader in his community, had an
altercation with a local bartender who assaulted him and two friends and
abused them with racist epithets. Joe Milton, the dead man’s brother, was
L *a ten by police in the Bedford Ave. station, who tried to make him admit
lie started a fracas in the bar.

iugust. — Joe W. Perkins, 26, was killed by Birmingham, Alabama police who
•taid he was trying to escape. He was the ninth Negro slain by police in
tlic past four months.

August 21. — Herman Burns, Negro war veteran was beaten to death by
l os Angeles police outside the La Veda Ballroom. At the same time, his
brothers Julius and John were attacked by several police. Mrs. Virginia
burns, the widow of the slain man sued the city for $200,000 naming
M.iyor Bowron, Police Chief Clement Horrall, and Asst. Chief Joseph Reed
r, being derelict in their duty for failing to suspend or discharge the
filler cops.

jkl’tcmber 6. — Isaiah Nixon, 28-year-old veteran, was killed in Montgomery
( ounty, Ga. in the presence of his wife and children after he had voted in
llu* September 6 primary. A jury freed M. L. Johnson, the killer.

Sff'tcmber 26. — Hosea W. Allen of Tampa, Florida, was shot to death by
Victor Pinella, proprietor of a beer tavern, when Allen asked to be served a
bottle of beer. Justice of the Peace Spicola freed Pinella.

of October 16. — Danny Bryant, 37, of Covington, Louisiana, was shot
10 death by policeman Kinsie Jenkins after Bryant refused to remove his
bat in the presence of whites.

November 20. — In Lyons, Georgia, Robert Mallard, riding with his wife and
1 wo teen-age relatives was ambushed and slain by a gang of over twenty
tobed terrorists. Mallard was shot several times before his wife’s eyes. Mrs.
Mallard identified two of the killers as Roderick L. Clifton and William L.
Howell, farmers. They were later acquitted. (Mrs. Mallard is a signer of
ibis petition.)

1 949

1'ov.e hunting down suspects in assault case in Groveland, Florida, shot and
lulled Ernest Thomas in pine woods. Posse was made up of deputies.

72 GENOCIDE

They claimed Thomas was armed. Several teams of dogs were used to fu>
Thomas.

Malcolm Wright, 45, tenant farmer of Houston , Mississippi was beaten hi 1
death for allegedly not moving his wagon off the road fast enough to Iti
white men in car pass.

Wee\ of January 2. — Herman Glasper, 30, was shot and killed in Bryan 1
County, Georgia, by State Trooper Corporal Dee E. Watson. Glasper hail I
been arrested on suspicion of being a hog thief. Sheriff E. W. Miles claim"
that the shooting was an accident, that Watson shot when he stumbled ovrl
some bushes.

January 10. — John Ferrell, young Negro father of 25 Mulberry Street, Albany |
New York [, arrested on a misdemeanor charge, was found dead in the Fh ••
Police Precinct 10 minutes after being jailed. Police claimed Ferrell hann (
himself. Ferrell, father of two children, had been arrested at his home, jiifi
police began beating him when they took him away according to his wif<| 1
Mrs. Marguerite Ferrell.

January 16. — Charles Phifer was shot in the back and killed in the home of
his stepmother, Mrs. Anne Phifer, of the Bronx, New York {. Patrolman
Eugene Stasiuk had been called to settle an argument and claimed Phil"
attacked him. He failed to explain how he shot him in the back.

February 18. — George Waddell was shot in the back and slain in his homi
by Brooklyn, New Yor\, policemen who invaded it without warrant, with
no charges against him. The police claimed they were looking for a gamblmji
game when they forced their way into Waddell’s home.

February 26. — An unidentified Negro prisoner was shot to death by a poln»
man. The prisoner, who- was locked in a room with several officers in Man
Chester, Georgia, was shot three times in the back.

April 2. — Jim Mitchell, 65, and Irv Lee Parker, 18, were lynched ncai
Macon, Georgia, according to the confession made April 2nd by John M«
Kinney, who implicated Louis DuBose. After dragging the Okmulgee Rivn
Mitchell’s body was found with his throat slashed and his stomach rippnl
open.

Wee\ of April 10. — Hayes Kennedy, 45, died in a Birmingham, Alabama
hospital after he had been beaten in jail. Police Sheriff Lacey Alexamlri
claimed Kennedy fought with officers in the jail.

May 3. — Willie Johnson was shot to death by two Brunswick, Georgia
policemen who claimed that “he was looking suspiciously at a house,’ 1
Johnson, 58, had been a resident of Brunswick for fourteen years, was 1
county employee, and a deacon of St. Paul’s Baptist Church. The case wim
reported to the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department by Mr*
Constance Baker Motley, of the NAACP Legal Department.

May 30. — Caleb Hill, 28-year-old farm hand of lrwinton, Georgia, was takm
from the County jail by an armed mob and several hours later, his body wu*
found hanging near a creek. He had been shot through the heart several
times. Hill was in t£e custody of Sheriff George Hatcher, charged with
creating a disturbance and resisting arrest.

June 12. — Richard Brown, and his cousin, James Taylor, were shot anil
killed in Harlem, New Yor ^ City, by plainclothes no-badge Patrolman
Abraham Yudenfreund. No prosecution.

July 2. — Malcolm Wright, 45-year-old tenant farmer was slain near Houston
Mississippi, before his wife and four small children. Subsequently thrrr

THE EVIDENCE 73

men, James Moore, James Kelum, and Eunice Gore were arrested and

Indicted in the killing. ^ . T

„/y a— Chrispin Charles, a Navy veteran, was slain in New Orleans, La.
by Patrolman E. Landry and E. Sahuc after they had arrested him during a
I Ainily quarrel. The veteran was slain with six bullets after he protested, I

Uven’t done anything.” TT . u j

uly 1 8. — Frank Bates was “found” dead in a New Orleans jail cell. His body
was battered, his ribs crushed and broken, his eyes swollen. Bates had been
arrested after being picked up in the vicinity of the killing of a Catholic
nricst. No proof was ever produced that he knew anything of the killing,
though a confession was third-degreed out of him. The coroners verdict
•in his death was “malnutrition.”

|l ily 29. — Walter Dandridge, 32, was killed by Birmingham, Alabama police.
Ihs mother, Mrs. Susie Dandridge, 60, and his brothers John, 44, and
| ames, 26, were wounded.

in gust. — James Scott, 56, of Peoria, Illinois was shot dead by Fred Lang,

« bartender in the Century Club. Scott had been assured by the proprietor
1 |, a t he could be served, but the bartender took matters in his own hands.

I Ic ordered the Negro not to come into the club again and in the ensuing
.ngument pulled a gun and shot Scott. The killer was sentenced to from

lix to 14 years. .

Iiiliust 10. — -George Westray, 31, was shot and killed in the Lincoln Hospital,
llronx, New York, by Patrolman Daniel McEnery. Westray had been previ-
ously beaten unmercifully.

{ H ust 11.— James Perry, 41-year-old Negro unemployed war veteran, died
m Homer G. Phillips Hospital, in St. Louis, Missouri, after being beaten
bv four police officers. Cause of death was listed as intracranial hemorrhage,
ferry had been picked up by the four police on complaint of a park watch-
man, who tried to evict Perry from a small park in a Negro section, at
I 00 p.m that afternoon. His companion, a Miss G. Burns, told Civil
Rights Congress representatives that police beat Perry about the head. She
had been threatened, she said, and was forced to leave the park. The in-
quest said cause of death was unknown, and evidence presented there
proved the police charge of larceny against Perry to be false. (Police claimed
he had stolen soda from a soda wagon but the vendor testified it had been
stolen by children.)

Member i— A 17-year-old youth, David Hanley, was shot to death in
Lexington , Kentucky by Patrolmen William B. Foster and William Lewis.
The police claimed he tried to escape them. A Fayette Circuit Court jury
found them not guilty of murder.

I Vre{ of September 8.— Holis Riles, 53, prosperous owner of a 200-acre farm
was slain on his land at Bainbridge , Georgia by a group of white men.
Riles was slain after he ordered the men from his land when they tres-
passed to go fishing. Jesse Gordon, a Negro eye-witness said the murderers
drove away in two cars. Previously Riles had trouble from white men
trespassing on his land. He had been warned to leave the district, but
refused. Sheriff A. E. White called the murder premeditated. The Georgia
bureau of Investigation studied the case.

1 h to her 2. — Lin wood Matthews, 19-year-old Negro was stabbed to death by
a gang of white mobsters who attacked him and six others of his athletic
rlub as they sought \r p'ay football in Carroll Park of Baltimore, Maryland .

74 GENOCIDE

The youths were attacked and chased from the park. They then went 1*1
another section of the park but were attacked again. This time Matthew |
was slain. The mobsters fled before police arrived.

November 4. — Police of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish beat to death 41 |
year-old Eugene Jones. His wife Martha, 25, told how police, identified *
Earl Rolling, Dick Massa, and a third unidentified officer, came to thd( !
home in the dead of night and seized Jones. He was beaten before her cyn
Jones was taken away. Then the officers returned and asked Mrs. J<Jnw
for more clothes. She ran to the car and saw her husband on the lion,
covered with blood. The next day she was told he died of “natural causfi *

November 12. — Michael Rice, 69-year-old Negro farmer was shot and killed
by Leroy Parker and Roy La wing in Walhalla, South Carolina. The men
then robbed Rice of from $400 to $500 and forced a terror-stricken 1 1
year-old Negro boy, Henry Davis, to remain with the corpse on pain 11I
death. Parker confessed that they shot the farmer when he refused to irli
them where his cotton money was.

Wee\ of November 19. — Eugene Jones, an ex-Marine, was beaten to deailt
by two Jefferson Parish , Louisiana Deputy Sheriffs in the Gretna jail. JoihV
wife testified that he had been spirited away by four officers, and that wbro
she called the jail a day later, she was told her husband was dead.

November 20. — Samuel Lee Williams, 34 (who died Nov. 28), and nvi
other Negroes were shot by a Birmingham, Alabama street car conductor
M. A. Weeks. Williams and the other Negroes argued with Weeks about
being ordered to move into the car’s jim crow section, whereupon the cod
ductor pulled his gun and fired. Police refused to arrest or place am
charges against the conductor. The wounded Negroes were Amos Cri n.
24, and John Carlington III, 21.

December 31. — Samuel Taylor, 38, Baldsville, Virginia farmer was mutilated
to death by a group of whites. Frank Clayton, a white farmer was arrested
Local reports charged that all the killers were known and that they included
a woman.

1950

January 1. — George West was shot and killed by James W. Beaman, $
Harlem, New Yorl [ policeman. Beaman was subsequently discharged by
the Police Department for “unsatisfactory conduct.”

January 8. — Three Negro children, Ruby Nell Harris, 4, Mary Burnside, H,
and Frankie Thurman, 12, of Kosciusko, Misssisippi, were slain by thrn
white men, Leon Turner, Malcolm Whitt and Windol Whitt, who ah<
raped Pauline Thurman, 17, and shot Thomas Harris, father and step
father of the children. Harris died later of his wounds, on April 12. Turnri
and Windol Whitt got life, while Malcolm Whitt got 10 years.

Mrs. Mattie Debardeleben, of Birmingham, Alabama, refused to sell sooi-
chickens to three Federal revenue agents and a deputy sheriff. They bail
her and she died “ofa heart attack” on way to jail.

January 9. — Nathaniel Grace, 28-year-old citizen of Brooklyn, New York
died in the City Hospital of njuries following a forcible arrest by polio*
Essex County Medical Examiner Martland said that Grace did not suffer
any skull fracture or apparent brain injury.

February 28. — Fernandina, Florida. Victim and another Negro, James Wii

THE EVIDENCE 75

HAMS, 1 8, picked up by Deputy Sheriff Dave Stokes who intended to arrest
ilicm for vagrancy. They told him they worked on a nearby farm. While
driving around with the prisoners in his car, Stokes stopped at service
•union to get friend, Reginald Johnson. Stokes claimed that uniaentine
man grabbed his gun and began shooting, whereupon Johnson killed Negro

Mill shotgun. . . . ,

lircf] 2. — Seventy-six-year-old James Turner, Negro Baptist minister, ot
Cairo, Georgia, was found slain in his bed and his three young children were
jlso found dead — all their heads smashed in with an axe. His wife said that
•oineone dressed in a white garment that looked like a gown ran after her.
'.lie escaped and went to the police.

|f l iy 8.— Thurmond Towns, 19-year-old garment worker of the Bronx, New
York was killed in New York City, by police of the 32nd Precinct. Towns
was shot in the St. Nicholas Park after police claimed he ran when they
Knight to question him about a purse snatched from a woman passerby,
(owns, however, was found to have a large sum of money in the bank, and
was known as a model citizen and unionist.

L r 5.— An unidentified Negro man was beaten to death in the Washington,
/). C. penitentiary. Attested to by fellow prisoners. No mention of incident

in press. ■ 1 r

L nr 19.— Lorenzo Best, 32, of Anniston, Alabama, was killed with four

bullets by Police Sgt. J. D. Thomas. A coroner called it “justifiable homicide.”
fHgust. — Leroy Foley died in Breckinridge County Hospital, Hardinsburg,
Kentucky, after he and two other Negroes lay on the floor three hours and
were refused medical attention for automobile injuries. The other Negroes
were Jessie Wallace and John H. Smith. According to Nurse Betty Graves,
lliey were put on the floor because we don t have facilities for colored
people. ” Foley died an hour after his arrival. To get the men out of the
[ hospital a Negro ambulance service was called from a distance of seventy
miles, and arrived after three hours. Jesse Lawrence, the driver of the am-
bulance, charged: “The blood had not even been wiped from their fares.
Their shoes had not been removed, and their belts had not been loosened ”
The hospital sent the injured men bills for $11.50 and $1.5° for the telephone
I call to get the ambulance.

\\ f rr{ of October 7.— Morris Scott was slain in Linden, Alabama by William
|( Welch and George Baker. Welch admitted firing the shotgun blast that
I lulled Scott in his home. County Sheriff T. Wilmer Shields declined to
I disclose a motive for the killing.

I October 20.— Samuel Ellis, Navy veteran of Philadelphia was slain by a
rookie cop on a subway. Ellies died an hour after being admitted to Hahne-
I man Hospital.

I .1 , tuber 20.— Harvey Wilson of Vanndale, Arkansas was shot and killed by
W. M. Stokes during an argument over the purchase of a small amount of
I coal oil. Stokes was arrested and charged with first degree murder.
November 1— James R. Clark, 28-year-old former policeman, received ten
months in an Opelika, Alabama, Federal Court on the charges of violating
1 he civil rights of a Negro he and another policeman, Doyle Mitchum, had
beaten to death while holding him under arrest. Both were acquitted of the
I murder of Willie B. Carlisle, 19, of Lafayette. They beat him to death
1 with a rubber hose. Mitchum got six months.

| 'member.— Sam Jones, 35, San Pedro, California, construction worker and

76 GENOCIDE

member of AFL Laborers’ Local 802 was beaten to death by Policenjff
James R. Graham and Richard W. Clare. At the same time, they severth
beat Jones’ companion, Nathaniel Ray, 46, shipbuilder and member ill
CIO Shipyard Workers Local 9. Ray is the father of eight children, 'll
policemen claimed the men drew knives after being arrested for drunken nr

December 7. — John Derrick, veteran just discharged from Fort Dix, N. |
was shot down in Harlem , New Yor\ City , at 119th Street and Eigliil
Avenue, by Patrolmen Louis Palumbo and Basil Minakotis attached to til*
28th Precinct. Derrick was slain with his hands in the air. The policemn
were subsequently cleared by the New York County Grand Jury.

December 8.— Matthew Avery, 24, student at the North Carolina A. and 1
College, died after an auto accident and being refused admittance to Duk
Hospital at Durham , North Carolina. Duke doctors said there was ii*
space for Avery and he died an hour later, while being transferred •
another hospital.

December 12.— Robert J. Evans, 86, was shot by Norfolk Virginia Patrolm.i
E. M. Morgan who claimed the old man pulled a knife on him. Evans w«-
shot when Morgan accosted him during an alleged search for a mu
involved in a knifing.

Wee\ of December 23.— Kelly Gist of Wa\e County, North Carolina w*
slain near Raleigh, by a former convict and parolee, N. G. Williams, wl,
shot him point blank in the chest with a 20-gauge shotgun. William
claimed Gist cursed at him. Williams was arrested and held without bowl

December 29.— Fred Prettyman, 28, of Birmingham, Alabama, was slain In
police, who claimed he tried to escape. Coroner Joe Hildebrand immedijii'
called it “justifiable homicide.” Prettyman was the fifth Negro slain In
police since Feb. 9, 1950, and the eleventh slain in the state since January j

1951

January 13. Andrew Johnson, 19, was killed by Chicago police in the On
tral Station. The young worker was arrested and charged with the murdl
of Coleman Hairston, a barber, during a holdup, but Sonny Portci,
porter in the shop, said Johnson did not look like the holdup man. Pori » 1
testimony was barred by Coroner A. L. Brodie. Johnson was picked up !■
Edward Cagney and Joseph Corcoran, policemen, who gave him the thm
degree in the station. He was dead by 3:30 p.m. after being arrested (In
hie died of internal injuries including a lacerated liver. Poll
said, “he just keeled over and died.”

January 19.— Bobby Lee Joyner, 17-year-old high school student was slain I
Police Chief J. A. Wheeler and Policeman W. E. Williford who pump*
seven bullets into the youths body, claiming he tried to attack them wiili
knife, in La Grange, North Carolina. The Greensboro Record and lli
Raleigh News and Observer demanded that the officer be prosecuted. Tin
were cleared by a Grand Jury.

February 2 and 5.— -The Martinsville Seven Negroes were electrocuted
Richmond, Virginia for a^rime they could not have committed, accord 1.
to the evidence. The alleged crime was rape of a white woman who I.
since disappeared. They were Clabon Taylor, Fran\ Hairston, Jr., Joe Hn,
Hampton, James Hairston , Boomer T. Millner, Francis Grayson, J. I
Hairston. (Mrs. Josephine Grayson, widow of the executed Francis Gray
son and the mother of five children, is one of the present petitioners.)

THE EVIDENCE

February 6. — Dr. M. A. Santa Cruz, prominent dentist, was beaten to death
in Pulaski, Virginia by two hoodlums when he sought to protect two Negro
Kids they were molesting. Police arrested Charles Simmons, 20, and E.
It uford Owen, 18, and charged them with murder. A taxi driver, Hubert
Matthews Costigan, is charged with “aiding and abetting” since he carried
ilicm from the scene of the crime. The girls, Evelyn Bland, 17, and Marie
I rench, 14, were accosted by the hoodlums and manhandled. When Dr.
Santa Cruz intervened and went to a police call box, the youths attacked
him from behind. He later died in an ambulance.

1 i bruary 7. — The bodies of four Negroes slain under mysterious circumstances
were found in Edgecomb and Nash Counties, North Carolina. The body
nl John Melvin, 50, was found on a farm in Edgecomb. William Battle,
was found on his door steps. Both were nude and partially burned. The
body of G. W. Batchelor, 80, was found in a corn crib. The one-year-old
Mm of Tom George Battle was found dead in bed and Battle himself was
dio t in the arm.

Uay 8. — The state of Mississippi electrocuted Willie McGee, World War II
veteran and father of four children for the framed “rape” charge made
against him by a white woman, Mrs. Willametta Hawkins. The cause of
liccdom for Willie McGee had been taken up around the world during the
live years that elapsed between his arrest on November 3, 1945 and his
death on May 8, 1951. Because of the protests that continued to mount on
behalf of McGee’s innocence and the lynch atmosphere in which he was
Inst tried and convicted, McGee was tried four times. As the evidence

I u vealed, Mrs. Hawkins had forced McGee into a relationship with her,
which he later tried to sever. It was in these circumstances that the white
woman charged “rape.” It was because the relationship between McGee and
i he woman had become known that the state of Mississippi ordered his
< h ath. The relationship between a Negro man and a white woman “violated”
•ill the white supremacy patterns of oppression against the Negro people in
1 lie south. For this McGee was killed. (Mrs. Rosalee McGee, widow of the
murdered defendant, and the mother of his four fatherless children, is a
Higner of this petition.)

I" nr 9. — Edward Honeycutt was put to death by the state of Louisiana on
** framed “rape” charge. At the time he was charged with rape, Honeycutt
was kidnapped from the St. Landry parish prison in Opalousa, La. by a
lynch mob. He was dumped on the low level of the Atchafalaya River as
three members of the mob started matching coins to see which would shoot
bim. As they argued, Honeycutt dove into the river. He was dragged out
mid rearrested. None of the mob was convicted for kidnapping or attempted
homicide. During Honeycutt’s trial, guards patrolled the courtroom armed
with pistols. Honeycutt said he had never seen the white woman who cried
upe until he saw her in court. On May 28, 1950 an all-white jury found him
guilty in 24 minutes.

ARTICLE II (b). CAUSING SERIOUS BODILY AND
MENTAL HARM TO MEMBERS OF THE GROUP

Serious bodily harm is at once demonstrable; serious mental harm is

•Mine complex. Living from birth to death under the terror of threats
1 violence and lynching, constantly menaced by the law and police, as

78 GENOCIDE

well as by the extra-legal unwritten tenets of white supremacy and lit
the terroristic activities of the Ku Klux Klan, results in profound mentll
harm to members of the group.

“Perennial, hour by hour, moment by moment lynching of the Negro'i
soul in countless psychological, in myriad physical forms, that is tin
greatest and most enduring lynching of all,” declare Harry Haywood
and Earl Conrad in an unpublished paper on Atrocities Against h
Million Negro Citizens. “This is written,” they add, “into the spiritudi
hanging of all those millions, it is carved into their daily thinking, wovtn
into their total living experience. They are lynched in the thousands «|
glances from white supremacists all over the land every day, in discouu-
sies; insults, snobbery; in all the great events of the total nation*!
experience and as well in all the minutest experience. The great dailt
clash of two peoples living together in antagonism, with walls of bigoin
between, is a mass lynch act committed constantly against the fifteen
million.”

A white reporter, Ray Sprigle, posed as a Negro in the South in
The insults and degradation he suffered, the indignities and bitternna
are well told in his book. More recently, the psychiatrist Abram Kardim .
has studied the mental harm of segregation upon individual Negron
Numerous individual biographies and autobiographies tell this story til
mental harm in convincing detail.

We may also note an accumulating body of scientific evidence con
cerning the measurable serious mental and bodily harm inflicted upon
them which are more fully described under Section 11 (c). Here we noli
the evidence of mental harm. The highest law officers of the Federal Gov
ernment have openly admitted the serious mental harm inflicted u| m .n
Negro citizens by segregated housing. These conditions will be discussr.l
below. In their brief submitted to the United States Supreme Conn
against restrictive covenants or segregated racial housing, then Attorney
General— now Supreme Court Justice— Tom Clarke and Solicitor Generui
Philip B. Perlman stated in 1948:

“. . . The combination of inadequate housing with racial segregation has moil
unfortunate economic, social and psychological effects. Colored people air
forced to pay higher rents and housing costs by the semi-monopoly whic li
segregation fosters. The incidence of crime and juvenile delinquency is mud'
greater, and the occurrence of death and disease among Negroes is substantially
increased. And to the corftsion which such congested and inadequate living
conditions work upon any poorly-housed individual’s mental health, as a citizen
and a human being, there must be added the peculiar disintegrating acid whirl,
enforced segregation distills to harm not only the victim alone, but the wholi
fabric of American life.” 1

) Subsequently published as Prejudice and Poverty, 1948.

THE EVIDENCE

We include the continual and constant threats and demonstrations of
'lu Ku Klux Klan against the Negro people as acts which cause serious
mental harm to members of the group.

The cases are bare reports, a few among thousands. The incalculable
damage that each ‘‘case” causes not only to the individual, but to the
Negro community, requires little elaboration. What is obvious from
1 isual notice is the careless disregard for Negro life, liberty, and person
'li.n is the distinctive trait of genocide.

Of great pertinence then in the conclusion of Helen V. McLean in an
"licle “Psycho-dynamic Factors in Racial Relations” published in the
\ nnals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

“ The high incidence of hypertension among southern Negroes is prob-
ably one indication of an unconscious attempt at the mastery of the
hostility which must be controlled. ... the chronic rage of these individ-
•uls produces the hypertension which initially is fluctuating in character.

I vcntually the pathological changes resulting from this overload on the

udiovascular-renal system lead to a consistently high blood pressure.

"All available evidence from clinicians,” the article continues, “indi-
ces that functional (that is psychosomatic) disease is markedly on the
Increase in the Negro.”

I)r. E. Franklin Frazier supports this view in an article tided “Psycho-
logical Factors in Negro Health” published in the Journal of Social
I'orces, Volume 3.

“The psychology of the Negro, developed in the repressive environ-
"icnt in which he lives, might be described as the psychology of the
mi k. ... It must certainly mean a reduction in that energy which char-
ftc lerizes healthy organisms.”

The mental harm done to the Negro people of the United States by the
mnditions forced upon them is incalculable. It has been ably documented
•n such studies as “Black Metropolis” by Horace Cay ton and St. Clair
I hake; “An American Dilemma” by Gunnar Myrdal; “Caste, Class and
Kace in a Southern Town” by John Dollard; “Brown Americans” by
l .dwin R. Embree; “The Negro Family in the United States” by Dr. E.

I ranklin Frazier; “Negro Liberation” by Harry Haywood; “Hemmed
In” by Robert C. Weaver; “Patterns of Negro Segregation” by Dr.
1 liarles S. Johnson; “The Philadelphia Negro” by Dr. W, E. B. DuBois,
hkI the President’s Report on Civil Rights and many others.

iugust , 1943. — The chief of police of Sander sville, Georgia ordered all Ne-
groes in the city who were over 16 years of age to wear badges showing the
name of their employer and work schedule. He further required that all
Negroes report each Wednesday for farm work, regardless of their other,
regular employment.

flo

GENOCIDE

May i, 1944 to July 20, 1946. — The Chicago Council Against Racial and Rell*
gious Discrimination, in a report titled “Arson-Bombing and Other Terror
ism Against Negro Households in Chicago” (Documented Memorandum
VII), reported that from May 1, 1944 to July 20, 1946, there were moff
than 59 arson-bombings and other acts of terror committed against Negrn
households. Two Negro children were killed and four persons seriously
injured. The report said: “There has not been a single conviction for tin
59 attacks. ... In 26 instances police were assigned to guard property and
prevent recurring attacks only after repeated requests by defense organize
tions. In some cases, police details have been guarding a residence for more
than a year. In seven cases there was reported vandalism while a police
detail was on guard.”

1 9 4 5

Tom Jones, 17, of New Orleans, Louisiana, was shot by a bus driver in tin
fall of 1945 for not saying “Yes, sir.” He survived.

James Corley, a veteran, was ordered returned to the South Carolina chain
gang by Governor Dewey of New Yor\. Corley was arrested in Aiken, S.C
in 1928 on a burglary charge, beaten when he denied it, and threatened
with “worse.”

Summer . — During 1945, Alabama officials refused to take action on behalf ol
Mrs. Recy Taylor, of Abbeville, who had been kidnapped, stripped of her
clothing, and raped by six white men on September 3, 1944. She was on
her way home from church when she was forced into a car at the point of «
gun and knives. The Henry County Grand Jury repeatedly refused, during
1945 and 1946, to indict the white men, although the driver of the kidnap
car confessed and named his accomplices. In the summer of 1945, Mrs. Caro
line Beilin (white) executive secretary, Committee for Equal Justice for Mrx
Recy Taylor, tried to visit Mrs. Taylor’s home in Abbeville. The sheriff man
handled her and ordered her to stay out of the Negro section of town. A
special grand jury, ordered by Gov. Sparks to investigate the case, refused t««
indict the white men.

Wesley Johnson was lynched during 1945 in Abbeville, Alabama. Lee Waki»,
17, was beaten by a mob in the same town in 1945, after he had been
accused of stealing $5. Peter Johnson, a soldier, home in Abbeville in
1945 after two years overseas, was beaten by a mob. Fred Ward, 16, \va
chased out of the town in the same year, for defending two young gill
acquaintances from a group of white bullies. All these acts were part of th»
terror which followed the efforts to punish the rapists of Mrs. Recy Taylor,
a young Negro woman.

June . — Governor Ellis Arnall of Georgia asked that the persons responsible
for chaining three 15-year-old youths at the County Negro Industrial Farm
be removed. The youths said they had been chained for two weeks. The
superintendent of the farm said that he had had them chained to prevent
their escape.

June . — A series of vicious attacks in the Harlem- Washington Heights neighbor
hood of New York City by gangs of white hoodlums sent citizens to sc<
Inspector Brown, one of the Mayor’s representatives, to demand protection,
Inspector Brown stated that 15 arrests had already been made.

THE EVIDENCE

ftwe 6. — A petit jury in DeKalb County, Georgia, acquitted two white men
charged with kidnapping and raping a 17-year-old Negro school girl last
Christmas eve, despite her unshakable testimony. The young woman was
driving from church with a young man when she was forced into another
car, driven to a shack and raped.

July — The U.S. Navy Department upheld the 1944 conviction of fifty

Negro seamen on charges of mutiny for refusing to load ammunition at
Port Chicago, California, where more than 300 had been killed earlier in an
explosion. Mr. Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP declared in a com-
munication of the Secretary of the Navy that if the men had been white
“the case would not have merited a trial.”

jiwe 17. — William Palmer was shot five times by J. C. Bradford of Brandon,
Mississippi, because he refused to abide by segregation rules at the Knox
Glass Company. Palmer will be crippled for life. Bradford went free after a
hearing.

Inly. — Mayor Grady Cochran of Lak e City, Florida, pleaded guilty on Novem-
ber 8, 1945 to a charge of aggravated assault against three Negroes whom
he beat in their homes in July, 1945. The mayor had invaded two homes
and violently attacked two men and a woman.

Inly 1. — White crowds attacked a large number of Negroes in West Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania streets after a white taproom owner had insulted and
refused to serve several Negro couples. Bricks were thrown and traffic was
stopped.

Inly 2. — Charles Collins, organizer of the AFL Food Local Union 6, was
assaulted by a policeman in the House Rules committeeroom in Washington,
D.C . where a delegation had gathered from New York and Pennsylvania
10 urge funds for me FEPC. (Mrs. Collins is a signer of this petition.)

Inly 9. — Pfc. Helen Smith, Pvt. Tommie Smith and Pfc. Georgia Boson,
all members of the U.S. Womens Army Corps, were brutally beaten in the
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, bus t#minal for sitting in the “white” section
when the “colored” section was full. A civilian policeman ordered Pfc.
Smith and her two companions to move. When they protested, they were
l>eaten. The policeman involved was later tried and acquitted.

Inly 23. — Mr. and Mrs. Henry Buffins of Bay side, New Yor\, appealed to
police for protection after several months of heckling by white neighbors,
who had been trying to force the Negro family to move. The couple stated
l hat provocative acts against their children were followed by threats to make
1 he Negro family so miserable that they would sell their home.

Inly 28. — Albert Peterson, ii years old, of Queens, New Yor\, was burned
so badly that the flesh hung from his body. Robert Shilling, the son of a
policeman, was accused of doing the burning, using ignited cigarette lighter
lluid. For many weeks nothing was done to find the culprit.
in gust. — A young Negro woman was raped twice on an August afternoon in
a tobacco field in Wa\e County, North Carolina. When the case came to
court, evidence against her white attacker piled up and his attorneys decided
lo enter a plea of guilty to a lesser charge, assault with intent to rape. The
pidge accepted the lesser plea with its resulting lighter sentence — 10 to 15
years — on the ground that it was in accordance with the general character
of the defendant. The court’s approval was gained by the defendant’s
•latement that he refused to allow his parents to collect their social security
payments, preferring to support them himself. The judge said: “A man

82 GENOCIDE

is not altogether bad who loyally and faithfully performs obligations to his
family.”

August . — Corporal Marguerite Nicholson of Philadelphia was arrested,
held in jail, for two days and beaten, charged with violating North Carolina
transportation laws. After two years in the WACs, Corporal Nicholson was
riding on a Seaboard Airline train leaving Raleigh, N. C. when she was
ordered to move forward. When she complied with the order, Corporal Ni
cholson was ordered to move still further forward. She refused. At Hamlet,
N.C., officers arrested her and one officer abused, cursed and struck hci
before putting her in a cell. In court she was given a suspended sentence
and a fine.

August. — Fourteen inmates of the Federal Correctional Institution at Ash
land, Kentucky, were punished for refusing to eat under jim crow arrange-
ments. These men, who were thrown into solitary confinement, included
three Negroes, ten whites, and one Japanese-American.

August 3. — In Memphis, Tennessee, two young Negro women were raped by
uniformed police officers. They were waiting for a street car to take them
home from work, when the officers took them into custody. They were then
driven to an isolated spot where the officers raped them. The officers warned
them that they would be killed if they reported the incident. A complaint
jto the Chief of Police from the mother of one of the young women brought
the advice that she keep her mouth shut. The two officers were acquitted by
an all-white jury.

August 7. — Mrs. Nina Beltram of New York and her five-year-old son were
beaten near Hamlet, North Carolina by a conductor for the Seaboard Airline
Railway because the jim crow car was full and Mrs. Beltram had found
seats in the “white” car. The man assaulted both the mother and the child.
He punched the mother in the side and kicked the baggage so that it knocked
the child down and bruised him. Mrs. Beltram sued the Railway and was
awarded a cash setdement.

August 17. — Peter Paul Hall, 18, was convicted by an all-white jury in
Eufala, Alabama, on a charge of “rape.” He was tried in an atmosphere of
violence, without benefit of defense testimony. The jury deliberated for ten
minutes. Two days after Hall’s arrest on July 5, many Negroes were beaten
on the streets of Eufala, according to an admission made by the town Chief
of Police to a Chicago Defender reporter. Gangs of white hoodlums hunted
down, beat and drove all Negroes from the downtown area. A 9 p.m. cur
few was set for Negroes; night workers were afraid to report for their jobs;
.scores of Negroes left town daily.

August 22. — Robert McAlpin, Negro photographer of light skin, was arrested
in Harlem, N. Y., as a “white intruder.” This was part of a definite policy
of Harlem police to try to frighten white persons away from the Negro
community.

September. — Because Will Brown, farmer in Joiner, Arkansas, gave advice to
tenants concerning crop setdements and tenancy arrangements, the white
plantation owner whST was also deputy sheriff, attacked and tortured Brown.
After seizing Brown, the deputy conducted a mock court, acting as prose-
cutor, judge and jury. After delivering the mock sentence, die deputy
forced Brown to suffer beatings and bestial tortures, then left him for dead.
Brown crawled home, and later explained to authorities why the planta
don owner-deputy sheriff had attacked him.

THE EVIDENCE 83

September. — When Mr. and Mrs. J. Smyil moved into their new home in
Philadelphia, some of their windows were smashed and neighbors mad<
threats of further violence against them.

September. — Mrs. Ruby Maynard, former WAC, was awarded damages in
federal court at Montgomery, Alabama, against the Capitol Motor Lines.
En route from Tampa, Fla. to Greenwood, Miss., Mrs. Maynard protested
when the bus driver abused a Negro who sat down next to a white soldier.
The driver cursed and threatened her and she was ejected from the bus at
Uniontown, Ala.

September 15. — L. C. Akins of Dallas, Texas, was sentenced to die for defend-
ing himself against a white policeman. On September 15, 1945, as he boarded
a Dallas street car, a policeman’s wife charged that he had jostled her.
The policeman struck Akins and shot him through the body. In the strug-
gle that followed, Akins picked up the gun and shot and killed his attacker.
Akins was sentenced to die. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to reverse the
sentence, although Justices Stone, Black, and Murphy dissented. Akins’ sen-
tence was finally commuted to life by Governor Coke Stevenson of Texas.
September 21. — Sixty-four-year-old Mrs. Willie Bradley was beaten uncon-
scious by the turnkey in a Springfield, Illinois jail. Mrs. Bradley was in jail
because six policemen had entered her home and arrested her, her daughter,
Anna Bee Bradley, and Kenneth Scruggs. Removed to the hospital after the
beating, Mrs. Bradley was found to have suffered two broken ribs. In court,
the police magistrate gave Miss Bradley thirty minutes to leave town
after she refused to promise the Chief of Police that she would not discuss
her mother’s case elsewhere. Although Mrs. Bradley was a day workei
registered with an employment office and was often employed, her daughtei
worked in a war plant, and Mr. Scruggs was employed at the State House
all three were held on a charge of vagrancy.

October . — Robert Younc^r, a cook in Rockingham, North Carolina, wa
threatened with lynching when he carried out the restaurant owner’s orde
not to allow the white waitress to use the toaster. When Younger transmitter
the order, the waitress charged th#f he attacked her. Negro friends rushe'
Younger to Hamlet, N. C. by car, but a lynch mob followed and su:
rounded the house. Police removed the man to the Hamlet jail, but the mo
stormed the jail. Removed to still another jail, Younger was tried in a lync
atmosphere. When the waitress admitted during the trial that Younger ha
not attacked her, the judge ordered him freed. However, local hostili 1
against Younger was so pointed that he was forced to leave Richmor
County and find work elsewhere.

October . — Because a white merchant in Lexington, Georgia, claimed that h
son, then in the army, owed his store a debt, Mrs. Hattie Cantrell w
badly beaten by the merchant. A complaint was entered with the Attorn
General of the United States on Mrs. Cantrell’s behalf in October, 1945.
October 12. — Harlem, New Yorl{ Democratic leader, Guy Brewer, was beat
and kicked in the face by a policeman when he protested the closing oi
registration board before its scheduled time. When the case came to cot
Brewer, not the policeman, was found guilty of disorderly conduct. T
Appellate Term of Special Sessions Court reversed the sentence.
November. — Fletcher Mills, 19-year-old Negro sharecropper from Tuf
loosa, Alabama, was held on an extradition charge, pending hearing bef
Gov. of Pennsylvania . The Alabama farm owner had struck Mills over

GENOCIDE

head with a three-foot wooden club, and Mills, in self-defense stabbed his
assailant in the arm. Three armed men then appeared at Mills’ home and lie
Wed to Detroit, where he was jailed. Although he couldn’t read, Mills was
forced to sign his name to an extradition warrant charging him with intent to
murder. A letter, sent north from Alabama, said: “If Hide (nickname foi
Hetcher Mills) come back tell him that lawyer said don’t come back on
this side of river because mob crowd said that wherever the sun shine that
is where they will lay him.”

November. McCoy Thompson, newly discharged from the Navy, was beaten
to a pulp at Hemingway, South Carolina, because he had the temerity to
ask why he was being arrested. En route home to Columbia, S. C., he got
oft the train at Hamlet to mail a letter. The conductor cursed him. At Hem
ingway he was beaten with fists and with a machinist’s hammer, then
jailed and fined $50 on a charge of disorderly conduct and drunkenness.
November — On her way home, Miss Annie L. Smythe, teacher, in Johnson,
South Carolma, was approached by a local police officer. The white man
gave Miss Smythe a choice between having sexual relations with him 01
being arrested. She resisted his advances and was promptly arrested on dis
orderly conduct charges. Miss Smythe was released only after protests arose
trom many sources. No action was taken against the policeman.

November.— John Tate, disabled veteran, stepped into an Atlanta, Georgia
restaurant which had employed him before the war. An officer placed him
under arrest. He was fined in court. The Atlanta Daily World commented
on November 11 1945: “Some Atlanta police are reported to be beating
up discharged and disabled Negro veterans at the slightest provocation and
practicing a general get-them-in-line-with-post-war-attitude.’ ”

November 27.— Miss Odette Harper, a Red Cross director, was forced from

MP’s fiT?' 1 V :3 ° A - M ‘ by 3 C0nduCt0r and th ««

, s - .The MPs brandished their clubs and said: “You god damned n s

£ r P J n y °“ r K° Wn C ° aCh -n \ n ° rder t0 Visk 3 Ne S ro nursc lieutenant, Miss
Harper had been compelled to pass through several “white” coaches. On
this visit the three white MP’s had first accosted her, not merely brandishing
clubs, but also reaching toward their pistols

Deeember.-JosEPH Hardy of the U.S. Navy, was insulted and assaulted, to-
gether with many other Negroes, in the town of Vallejo, California, while
attending a movie. Following this outrage, Hardy spoke publicly againsi
discrimination and was then asked to sign a blue dishonorable discharge on
the ground that he had “created prejudice.” Only after certain influential

“ UndeSIrabIe discha ^” chan S ed W “discharge

December 15.--J0HN J. Hill aided another passenger on the subway by point-
mg out to him that he had passed his station. For his pains Hillwa
rewarded by a New Yor * City Transit policeman who arrested him on
charge of picking pockets and threatened him with bodily harm. The deteo
tive took Hill to the lavatory and said: “I’ll beat your brains out, vou black

we g« finished with you you’ll wish you were
back in Mississippi. Hil^was fined %o or ten days in Felony Court!

December 20.— Fourteen-year-old Ernest Brooks, Jr. was sentenced to life

°n , rape ’’ ' n Hanover County, North Carolina

e nn A gm ? l y r to die, but on December 20, i 945) Gov

Cherry of North Carolina commuted the sentence to life in prfson.

THE EVIDENCE

December 22. — Cab Calloway, famous bandleader, was slugged by a city
policeman at the entrance to Kansas City's Play-Mor Ballroom. Calloway
had been invited to the hall by Lionel Hampton, whose band was playing
there. Calloway was struck over the head with a pistol several times by a
policeman. Eight stitches had to be taken in his head, and Calloway was
charged with drunkenness and disturbing the peace. All charges against the
bandleader were dismissed in court.

1946

Police were especially violent against Negro strikers during the strike against
the Piedmont Leaf Tobacco Co., at Winston Salem, North Carolina, in 1946.
Mrs. Margaret DeGraffenried, mother of four children, was beaten by
police during the strike and sentenced to three months on a road gang. Cal
Roberson Jones, a worker at another tobacco plant, who happened to pass
by the Piedmont plant, was beaten by police and sentenced to eight months
on a road gang. Betty Keel Williams, a young woman striker, was sen-
tenced to 30 days. Philip Koritz (white), organizer for Local 22, Food and
Tobacco Workers Union, was sentenced to six months on a road gang for
coming to the defense of Jones while Jones was being beaten. The union
was asking a wage of 65 cents an hour.

William Dudley, member of the United Cement, Lime and Gypsum
Workers Union, was kidnapped, handcuffed and flogged in Wilkinson
County, Georgia, by four hooded men who said they were Klansmen.

Leon Johnson, steel worker of Clairton, Pa., was ordered extradited to the
Georgia chain gang by Governor Martin of Pennsylvania. Johnson testified
that on the chain gang he had been subjected to almost daily beatings by
the prison guards, forced to work while heavily shackled, deprived of
needed medical care, and that his life had been repeatedly threatened by
the prison guards. ^

Itmuary 25. — In Birmingham, Alabama, 100 Negro World War II veterans
inarched on Jefferson County Courthouse to demand that they be registered
as voters. Their demand was rejected by the Board of Registrars. Veteran
after veteran was turned down for refusal to ‘ifl^rpret the United States
Constitution/ Alabama law only requires the ability to read or write as a
condition for registration.

Iiinuary . — Travis Butler, a veteran, was shot in the back in Houston, Texas,
Iiecause he took the only seat vacant in a bus. The seat happened to be in
1 he “white” section and the conductor asked Butler to move. When he
refused, a general melee took place, during which Butler was shot. He
was subsequently fined on a charge of “aggravated assault.”

Iiinuary 23. — Arnold P. Johnson, uniformed veteran, was forced to go to the
noth street headquarters of the 120th MP Battalion in New Yor{, where
the officer in charge beat him up. Johnson, as a discharged veteran, was not
under the jurisdiction of the Military Police. Yet the reason given for his
arrest was that Johnson was illegally wearing his army uniform, in spite of
the fact that government regulations stated that a veteran could wear his
uniform as long as necessary after discharge, because of the clothing short-
age. Johnson was held in the station overnight and was neither allowed
to make a phone call nor notify his family in any other way. When he was
finally released, Johnson charged that many Negro soldiers and ex-soldiers

GENOCIDE

have been beaten at this particular station. Mrs. Benita Schuster, a war vci
eran, had been manhandled by the officer in charge of the 120th MP Bai
talion a short time before the Johnson incident. While eating in a restauram,
she was yanked off to headquarters, and left to sit on a bench for thirteen
hours, although she was ill.

February.— Miss Amy Spurlock was attacked by police in Jackson, Mississippi.
after white teen-age students had attacked a group of Negro teen-age stu
dents. Police appeared on the scene and joined in the attack on the Negroes.
They singled Miss Spurlock out for special brutality, and then arrested and
fined the young woman.

February 13.— A Negro veteran of the Navy, who was not named for his
own protection, was lashed 52 times at gun point by nine white men. He
was accosted on February 13, 1946, by four men in an Atlanta, Georgia
suburb, forced into a car at gun’s point, and taken to a place where, togethci
with five other men, his four kidnappers whipped him. This was revealed
on June 7, 1946 by Asst. State’s Attorney General Dan Duke.

February 13.— Isaac Woodward, Jr., discharged from the Army only a few
hours, was on his way home when he had his eyes gouged out in Batesburg,
South Carolina, by the town chief of police, Linwood Shull. Woodward
was travelling on a bus from Atlanta, Ga. to Winnsboro, S. C. About an
hour out of Atlanta, Woodward had an altercation with the bus driver.
At Batesburg, S. C., the driver called the police and ordered Woodward out.
Chief of police Liflwood Shull struck Woodward across the head with :i
billy, and in jail gouged out his eyes, blinding him for life. On November
5, however, an all-white federal jury acquitted Shull after being out for 15
minutes. Shull’s attorney had stated to the jury: “If you rule against Shull!
then let this South Carolina secede again.”

February 28.— Berta Mae Watkins, a Negro woman, resident of New York
City, purchased a ticket at the Pennsylvania Station in New York for a
through trip to West Palm Beach, Fla., which gave her the right to occupy
a specific seat on the Champion. In Jacksonville , Fla., she was ordered by
agents of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Co., and the Florida East Coast
Limited Railway Co., to move from her seat. When she refused, the Jack
sonville police were called to arrest her. She was convicted of violation of
the Florida segregation statute.

March 17.— Nick Williams, restaurant worker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
was indicted, tried and convicted all on the same day, on eleven charges
from rape to burglary and assault with intent to kill. The trial jury never
left the witness box. Williams had no chance to produce witnesses or con-
sult a lawyer. He was represented only by a court defender.

A ^-~ C ” A ® LES N - Hunt, Negro veteran, was kicked and beaten with a
blackjack in a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police station, following an ar-
gument between Hunt and a white motorist. Hunt had to be taken to a
hospital for treatment.

April— Jay Gould Cotton was arrested in Freehold, New Jersey, after he had
escaped from the Georgia chain gang. He had been sent to the chain gang
at the age of 14. He was ex^adited to Georgia through the action of Gov-
ernor Walter E. Edge and the Jersey courts, in spite of his attorneys’ con-
tention that he was a juvenile when arrested and should have been tried
in juvenile court.

April 13.— Major Benton, a war veteran, was sentenced to death in Rocking-

THE EVIDENCE 87

ham, North Carolina by an all-white jury. The complainant against him,

.1 white woman charging “rape,” testified at the trial that she could not
identify Benton. Benton’s “confession” had been signed after a two-day
I »< dice third degree, during which his life had been threatened. The North
< .irolina State Supreme Court set aside the verdict Dec. 2, 1946 and ordered
u new trial. At the new trial Benton’s relatives urged him to plead “guilty”
to a lesser charge rather than to go before the prejudiced all-white jury
iigain. He did so and received a life sentence.

May. — Napoleon Rivers, Sr., an elderly man of Mobile, Alabama, was beaten
unconscious by a patrolman in May, 1946, when he went to the Board of
Registrar’s Office to “vouch for” a number of Negro veterans who were
hying to register.

Mi iy y . — Two white patrolmen stopped and searched the car driven by Coun-
cilman Benjamin ]. Davis, in New Yor\ . They declared they were search-
ing the car “on suspicion.” They also questioned the occupants. In the car
was a white friend and co-worker of the Negro City Councilman, George
Make Charney. In a letter to Police Commissioner Wailander, Councilman
Davis stated: “In my judgment, my car was stopped only because it was in
a ‘white’ section of the city at an early hour of the morning, and because
one passenger was white.” (Mr. Davis is a signer of this petition.)

May 20. — Lorenzo Reed, who had escaped from a Florida road camp in 1945,
was ordered extradited from New Yor\ by Governor Thomas E. Dewey.
Reed had been sentenced after being accused of stealing twenty cents. In
New York, he testified that his life had been threatened by guards; that he
had been beaten while held over a keg; that he had been kept in a sweat
box. His trial took place in Panama City, Florida, without counsel, and
had lasted exactly ten minutes*. The trial resulted in a conviction of twenty-
live years.

May 28. — Bonis E. Byrd accidentally bumped into a policeman in New Yorf{.

I Ie apologized but got three blows on the legs and additional blows on the
body. He was taken to a police station where the same policeman poked
him in the eye with a billy. Byrd was then booked on charges of assault. The
. ase w r as called up five times but had to be dropped because the officer never
appeared.

hue 8. — Three white thugs raped a young Negro woman, Yvonne Kenny
and beat her white escort, Jack Hylands, to death in New Yor\ City's Cen-
iral Park.

lane 8. — A lay preacher, William J. Dessaure, was beaten by four white
policemen in Roc\yille Center, Long Island. Dessaur^had gone to the police
to registers complaint about a gambling place. When the police found the
place empty, they charged Dessaure with having led them on a wild goose
( base. They beat him, then booked him on a charge of second degree assault,
saying he had assaulted all four of them. All charges against the police were
dismissed, although many witnesses testified to the beating of Dessaure.
Dessaure was found guilty by a jury drawn from a panel that excluded
Negroes. Two prosecution witnesses admitted under cross-examination that
1 he District Attorney had suppressed sections of their statements which
revealed that the police had threatened Dessaure’s life. Dessaure was sen-
tenced on May 16, 1947, t0 one ar, d a ^ a ^ t0 three and a half years in jail.

I une 12. — After an argument with a taxi driver in New Yor]{ who refused
10 take him home, Carlton Powell, bass player, was beaten almost to

GENOCIDE

death. Instead of taking Powell home, as he had been directed to do, thr
taxi driver took him to a police station at East 51st street. There three plain
clothesmen pounded him. He was finally taken to Bellevue Hospital with
three lacerations on the back of his head; one laceration which split lm
forehead to the bone; contusion of the left face; three upper teeth knocked
out; a lower tooth knocked out and one lower tooth broken. Powell wa|
under suspicion because he was a Negro in a “white” area. He was indicted
on charges of felonious assault.

June 23. — According to Percy Green, editor of the Jackson Advocate (Mi*
sissippi), Miss Matilda Pinckney was beaten in Brandon , Mississippi by
persons who told her that: “Negroes will not be allowed on the streets afici
dark.” This is the same town of Brandon in which Etoy Fletcher (else-
where listed) was beaten on June 6 when he registered to vote. Mr. Grcrn
charged that Negroes in Brandon were living under a “reign of terror.”

July . — Tom Gillespie was shot by a white man when he attempted to vole
in the summer election in Athens, Tennessee. A few weeks later, on Auguil
10, a white mob attacked 1500 Negroes in Athens. The mob had firll
marched on the city jail to demand the release of two whites who war
jailed after a fight with Negroes. Then the mob began to chase Negroes on
the streets. L. C. Horton, a veteran, was physically assaulted, as were twenty
or thirty others, including women and children. W. C. Starkey, a white mail
who stood up against the mob, was flogged three times for it.

July 6. — Clyde Taylor Allen was one of a crowd that gathered on a Nnr
Yor\ City street to watch an incident that involved the police and a veteran.
When police began shoving members of the crowd around, Allen objected
For his protest he was hit three times on the arm and his arm was broken
He had to be hospitalized, but when he left the hospital, he was arrested on
charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

July 14. — When a cab driver refused to take three Negro women to thr
Bronx, New Yor\ they complained to a patrolman. The patrolman answered
their complaint by brutally beating and kicking Mrs. Josie Stewart, kicking*
Mrs. Helen Urquart on the leg, and dragging them, together with Miv
Leith a Griffith, off to jail. All three women were found guilty of assaull
and jailed, in spite of the fact that Mrs. Stewart had to have seven stitchei
in her lip and suffered internal injuries as a result of the beating.

July 16— Mrs. Lucy Gordy James of Detroit, Michigan charged that Patrol
men Earl Johnson, Arthur Cobb and Orrin Hamilton, beat her severely
Mrs. James is a member of the Gordy family, prominent Negro busineii
people of Detroit. She sued the officers for $10,000 damages, charging
illegal arrest, assault and maltreatment.

July 19. — Half-blind and elderly, James Slappey was stepping into a cab in
New Yor\ when a policeman with a gun drawn cursed him and ordered
him out. Slappey was marched into an areaway where another policeman
waited. The two policemen struck Slappey in the mouth with a blackjack,
splitting his lip and knocking out several teeth. One policeman pointed hi>
gun at the elderly Negro’s head and threatened to blow his brains 0111
Slappey was then booked on charges of attempted buglary. In the station
house, police forced him to fry on a straw hat which was several sizes ton
small for him. They claimed the hat belonged to the holdup man. When th<
case came to court. Slappey was found guilty of “resisting an officer and
causing a crowd to gather.” Sentence was suspended.

THE EVIDENCE 89

fitly 24, 1946.— At Newark, Delaware, a fiery cross was burned on the fringe
of the Negro community.

Inly 25. — Edgar Holt, a vice-president of the Southern Negro Youth Con-
gress, was beaten on July 25, 1946, at Newport News, Virginia by the fore-
man and several other whites while he was on a construction job. Holt had
asked the foreman for a drink of water, but was told that whites drank
first. When he objected, the foreman struck him in the face and several
whites joined in to beat him. The men then dragged Holt to a road and
[ left him lying there.

l, ( /y 31.— When Miss Constance Chaney and Charles Martin resented a
policeman’s question as to their business while they stood talking on a
New Yor\ street, the questioner beat them over the head with his club.
iugusu — Three deputy sheriffs gave Lucian J. Hopkins four blackjack beat-
ings as he was being transported over back roads from Alton to Edwards-
I tulle, Illinois .

lugust. John T. Walker, Negro veteran, received threats and warnings from
white people when he began to build a house in August 1946 in San Mateo,
California. The house was burned on December 6 before it was completed.
Officials dubbed the arson as “a boy’s prank” not to be taken too seriously.
Summer, 1946. — On June 14, a Ku Klux Klan death threat was mailed to
David Levinson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a civil liberties attorney.
Philadelphia papers on June 21 carried photostats of this threat. A fiery cross
burned on the grounds of the First Baptist Church at Crestmont, Pa., on
| illy 26. The Bellefonte, Pa. Centre Daily Times reported the burning of
several Klan crosses in August. The Franklin County Klan inserted an
advertisement in the Chambersburg, Pa. Public Opinion. Following many
demands, Governor Martin of Pennsylvania ordered an investigation. The
investigation showed that the Klan was doing business in Pennsylvania;
leaders were named and places given where meetings were held. In October,
1946, the Secretary of State of Pennsylvania wrote to an attorney, Saul
Waldman, that the Klan had a business permit for the state.

Summer, 1946. — Records in the office of Secretary of State Thomas J. Curran
of New Yor\ revealed to investigators in 1945 that the Knights and Women
of the Ku Klux Klan became a corporation under New York law on
October 30, 1925. One of the incorporators was Queens Motor Vehicle Com-
missioner Horace A. Demarest, a Dewey appointee. A letter mailed on
April 5, 1946, to Dorothy Langston (white), secretary to the Committee
for Justice in Freeport (L. I.) announced that the KKK would take action
against those active in behalf of the Freeport victims. On August 14, 1946,
Assemblyman Leo Isaacson and Chester Addison, American Labor Party
candidates for state assembly, charged in a joint letter to Borough President
lames J. Lyons that the Klan was being revived in the Bronx. They stated
that Wilson Bush, Bronx Klan leader, was cited by Assistant* District
Attorney Duke of Georgia as having recently met with other Klan leaders.
The Klan in New York State was ordered dissolved in July, 1946.

August 3. — George Mike Eliot, war veteran who had been blinded and
wounded in action, was talking to a friend on a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
street, when a policeman began to shove him. Eliot protested that he was
blind, and the policeman then clubbed him and kicked his wounded leg.
August 6. — At Miami, Florida, Roosevelt Winfield, chief steward of the
Porters and Cleaners Unit, CIO Transport Workers Union, was driving

GENOCIDE

to work when a car forced his auto to the curb. Three men in white howl,
and KKK nightshirts jumped out and threatened to kill him. They sai.i
that if he continued to take up the workers’ grievances he would be “drinl.
ing the waters of the bay.”

August u.— When a 2000-strong white mob went on the rampage agaimi !
the Negro community of Athens, Alabama fifty to one hundred Negro.,
were injured during the attack.

August 19.— An armed mob of 300 officers and civilians, using bloodhound
drove fourteen persons belonging to three Negro families into a swamp ncin 1
Magee Mississippi on August i 9 , 1946. The officers had surrounded iIh
house of a Negro family named Craft, accused of an altercation with whitn I
The Crafts and their neighbors, the Hubbards and Coopers, fled into it
swamp. The deputies then organized the “posse” and captured the follow
ing persons: John Craft, war veteran; T. J. Craft; Albert Craft, In
Garfield Craft; Oliver Cooper; J. W. Cooper; Horace Cooper; Luthu
Cooper; John Bill; L. T. Hubbard. Other members of the families nm
named in news reports were subsequently captured. L. T. Hubbard wit
wounded by posse” gun fire; W. O. Craft and eleven-year-old Albert
Cratt, Jr. were severely beaten when they were tracked down and captuinl
The entire group was first taken to the Magee jail, but threatening lym I.
mobs forced their removal to Jackson, Miss. In November, in the Smith
County Circuit Court L. T. Hubbard was convicted of assault with intent 1..
kill after only twenty-five minutes of deliberation. John Craft, W. O. Cmh
and Garfield Craft were found guilty on the same charge. In May, tin
Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the lower court decision, freeing W. < 1
Craft. The others were freed later.

August 23.— Three white hoodlums were fined $10 in Collins, Mississifi' ,
after being proved guilty of attempting to rape three young Negro won..,,
at the point of guns. & &

September. ~Tht State of Illinois refused to extradite Raymond Knox „l
Alabama back to his home state. Knox had received a promise from prison
authorities that he could join the Navy, and, upon receiving an honorabl.
discharge, that he would be released from further service of his prison
sentence. After serving fifteen months in the Navy Knox was honorably <|„

ht a ex e trad. n tk)n then “ Chica S 0 ’ where Alabama unsuccessfully sougln

September — Friends and neighbors of an unnamed eleven-year-old Negro oid
demanded that a white man whom they had caught in the act o/rapin,.
her be prosecuted. The child had been left alone in a New Yor\ apartocm
Neighbors who noticed the man enter the apartment, broke in and caugln
the white rapist in the act. u «f

Somber 3 ,-In New York City James Johnson was held in $50,000 bail
on charges bf assault, robbery and attempted murder. Johnson stated m
court that he had been brutally beaten, in addition to being hung by ha»,|

f0 f T' al hours b » N - Y - ■" e*S

PI L confess - Johnson had come to New York after escaping il„
Florida chain gang in 1945: Friends stated he had served thirty-two^ontl
o a five-year sentence on the gang. The sentence had been imposed becami
of Johnson s alleged theft of a carton of cigarettes. His friends fought again.!
his extradition to Florida on the grounds that he faced certain torture ami

THE EVIDENCE 91

possible death if returned to that state. Johnson was sentenced in New York
to from fifteen to thirty years in prison.

ptcmber 4. — One hundred and thiry-nine soldiers recendy returned from war
duty overseas were arrested on September 4, 1946, in Florence, South Caro-
lina. Police armed with riot guns approached them and made them march
migle file through the city to jail. There they were charged with “disorderly
conduct” and all but two were fined.

>• ptcmber 9. — Albert Wooden, a porter for the Illinois Central Railroad,
was beaten with a blackjack in Memphis, Tennessee by a white conductor
lor the same railroad after Wooden had protested segregation of Negroes.
While Wooden w'as being beaten a policeman looked on, handling his gun
ns though he meant to shoot Wooden.

September 15 — John Fuller, Carl Watkins and Richard Berry were at-
uicked by white hoodlums in an attempt to prevent them from attending a
dance that was to be held at the Queensbridge Housing Project community
miter in New Yor\. The white hoodlums approached the three Negro
youths with cries of “. . . kill the n s.”

ptcmber 17. — Paul Dorsey, veteran, was assaulted in Waynesville, North
i'.aroltna by four white hoodlums who ordered him off a bus and into a
waiting automobile. A lynch mob of 400 persons planned to murder Dorsey,
but the police intervened and prevented the lynching. Dorsey was placed
under arrest, however, and the lynchers went free.

September 25. — A white conductor for the Illinois Central Railroad shot
James Graves, a porter, through the chest in Mound Bayou, Mississippi .

< i raves and the conductor had argued over the seating of two Negro
passengers. The conductor slugged Graves behind the ear with a blackjack,
tben shot him.

ptcmber 27. — One Negro high school student was severely beaten,
mother stabbed and scores battered and bruised as the result of an attack
by white high school students outside the Benjamin Franklin High School
m New Yor\. The following day large gangs of white youths attacked
Negro youths. Police of the 23rd Precinct said that the attacks were “just one
of those things.”

Irptcmber 28. — The Coney Island, New Yor\ Civil Rights Committee

< barged that hoodlums, having recently threatened to drive all Negroes from
( -oney Island, hit Arthur Crawford, a veteran, from behind with a blunt
instrument, causing him to be hospitalized for a week. Pfc. Theodore
Tarver had been clubbed and arrested by the police on the pretext that he
<lid not move fast enough during a parade.

tober. — Aurelius S. Scott, educator, was confined to a mental institution
under circumstances that pointed to a frameup. Mr. Scott had filed his
•andidacy for the post of coroner in Atlanta, Georgia . Of the thirty-three
white candidates among whom the vote would have been split none was
willing to withdraw. There was, therefore, a good chance that Mr. Scott
might be elected. Much pressure was exercised to force him to withdraw ^
bis candidacy. On October 20, 1946, The N . Y. Times ran a story from which
• be following section is quoted: “. . . a reservation has been made at a
Nashville, Tennessee sanatorium for 45-year-old Aurelius S. Scott, whose
<*ntry into the Fulton County race had caused turmoil in local political

< ircles and a prediction that he stood a good chance of being the first Negro
office-holder in the deep South since Reconstruction.” The action was de-

GENOCIDE

nounced by officials of the NAACP , the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the Nation* 1
Urban League and the American Civil Liberties Union. Mr. Scott, howevn
remained in confinement.

October. Andy Wright, one of the nine Scottsboro, Alabama youths sentence,'
to die on the world-famous “rape” frameup in 1931 and saved by a wol
wide protest movement, was rearrested in October, 1946 for “violation «|
parole The parole board restored his freedom. In June, 1947, he was N

nlllh T aga p n ’ L a f’ n / eturned to P rison - Later > he was set free on parol,
er. n Richmond, Virginia , a Negro mother whose name was withheld

forc e raPed by tW ° wh ' tC P atrolmen - Both officers were suspended from il>

° Ct fZ 16 — Seventy-five Maury County whites formed a lynch mob in

of the Mount Pleasant, Tennessee city hall. Inside two Negroes were ben,,
questioned by police for driving a car belonging to a white man. A lynili
mg was averted, and the two Negroes, Roy Lee Johnson and B. Hogan
escaped with their lives.

0 th?Net 8 '~V Uring ?f, ber November > *946, a reign of terror again,
e Negro citizens of Atlanta, Georgia was inaugurated by Columbians, In,

new y c artered Anti-Negro and Anti-Semitic organization. Members, wca,
ing a red flash insignia, patrolled the Atlanta streets terrorizing Negroes. A
bomb blast rocked the home of Mrs. Minnie Sibley of Atlanta on Novell!
ber x. Clifford Hines was beated on October 28, 1946 by the ColurnMn,
tor walking in a mixed neighborhood.’ Attorney General Eugene Cook an
nounced on Dec. 10, 1946, that he had confessions from members of il,
Columbians which showed they were a Nazi-modelled conspiracy. One ,,l
the confessions described a meeting of the leaders, and stated in part: “Tin >

were going to start out first against the n s. After he (Homer Loon,,

u g °j C . 0ntr ° would go ahead and run the n s out of Atlam ,

He said they would have enough guns and ammunition to blow them 0111
of Atlanta. They would then organize in other states. Of course, tli.

, n , . s a . nd J ews would ) ust have to be shot at.” The activities of the Co
umbians, incorporated in Fulton County Superior Court, August 8, 194(1
were described by Congresswoman Helen Douglas Mankin as follows: “Tl„

Columbians, Inc. were carrying on a violent campaign of hatred

intimidation against minority groups throughout Fulton County, with ll,
result that a substantial number of Fulton County voters remained awn,
from the polls in the general election.” Two of the leaders of the Columbia,,
were sentenced in *947 toj^il on charges of riot and possessing dynamic
Asst. Atty-Gen Dan Duke told Georgia officials in connection with tl„
investigation: While investigating, start in the Police Department. Tffl
you 11 have a real investigation.” Duke named as a Klansman the formn
nead or the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

0 Tl e l\ 2 L~^ IS j t R ° S f G " ULDEN > a P^ffient New Yor\ woman, w„
roughly handled by detectives as she left her apartment. She was arrested
on a framed charge of numbers running.” She was released after proto,,
nan been registered by many organizations.

November.— A Houston, Tensas bus operator struck Guy Felder in the fa,
with a money changer because Felder’s car had run into the rear of <l„
bus. Seven of Felder’s teeth were loosened and had to be extracted A
county jury awarded damages to Felder in November, 1946.

A ovember 2.— -Mounted police, patrolmen, scores of detectives and strong-arm

THE EVIDENCE

men physically assaulted Negroes and whites both inside and outside of the
! Golden Gate Ballroom in Harlem, New Yor\. Occasion was Governor
Thomas E. Dewey’s wind-up election rally. When they protested some of
Dewey’s remarks, three Negro veterans, Walter Garland, Burt Jackson
.md Daniel Hardy were beaten in full view of the audience. Dorothy
Langston and Ruth Sacknowitz, both white, were also hit by police.
November 9. — Henry Neal, 28 years old, was sentenced at Tridelphia, West
Virginia, to a life term in the penitentiary for allegedly stealing $40 worth
of home furnishings.

November 9. — James E. Jackson, a veteran, was besieged in his New Orleans,
Louisiana home by white hoodlums who threatened to take him to the
woods and shoot him. The police who were called arrived too late to catch
the besiegers. Instead, they took Jackson to the police station and charged
him with “disturbing the peace” because he broke a window in an attempt
to attract the aid of neighbors during the siege. He was fined $25.

November 13. — Governor Walter E. Edge of New Jersey ordered Herman
Lowell sent back to Georgia on November 13, 1946 to finish serving a life
term on the Georgia chain gang. Powell had been originally sentenced
because, in March, 1941, when he swerved on a slippery road to avoid
| striking a car containing two white women, he lost control and crashed into
l lie car instead. After he regained consciousness in the hospital and was
able to face trial, Powell was tried in Johnson County Superior Court before
.m all white jury and convicted of the murder of one of the women. An
appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court resulted in affirmation of the convic-
tion. He escaped the chain gang and reached Newark, N. J. where he was
joined by his wife and two children. In Newark, Powell had begun to
1 {‘establish his life, found work, and earned his living for two years before
1 lie Governor of New Jersey ordered his extradition. The daughter of the
dead woman, who had been in the car with her, testified that the accident
was unavoidable.

November 19. — Samuel Taylor of Pritchard, Alabama, was convicted and
condemned to die on November 19, 1946 on a charge of “rape.” The NAACP
m filing its appeal declared that Taylor’s “confession” had been wrung
I mm him by means of physical assault on his person. For four consecutive
nights he was third-degreed and threatened with death by policemen if he
'('fused to “confess.” In December, 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court decided
10 review the case.

November 20. — Keith Howard, editor of the Yellow Springs News and a
leader of a movement to end discrimination in Yellow Springs, Ohio, was
.u tacked by two cafe proprietors with whom he attempted to consult con-
< erning their practice of discrimination. Howard was beaten and threatened
with death if he tried to enter the cafe again.

/ (ember . — L. C. Jenkins, a veteran, was castrated by a group of white men
near Collins, Mississippi, but the crime was hushed up in the local press.

It became known only through a letter from the wife of a Chicago NAACP
official who happened to be visiting in Mississippi. Jenkins and a friend,
W. C. Holloway, accepted a ride from an unknown white man after they
had attended a movie in Collins. After going a short distance, the driver
ordered Holloway from the car and told him to leave town. The driver
stated that he wanted to “get” Jenkins because of Jenkins’ attentions to a
young Negro woman in whom the white driver was also interested. Jenkins

94 GENOCIDE

was taken to a side road north of Collins where a group of white men
waited. They tied Jenkins to a tree and performed the castration with «
razor blade. Jenkins managed to struggle home and was taken to the hospital
The county sheriff discovered the razor and rope used in the crime. Jenkim
however, was afraid to name the white man and Holloway went into hiding
Threats of violence prevented any Negroes from coming forward to givt
testimony.

December. Charges that a campaign of terror had been organized duiiuji
1946 elections to keep Negroes from the Mississippi polls brought a Senulf
Investigating Committee to Jackson, Mississippi in December, 1946. Althou^l*
the Committee did not subpoena witnesses and thus give them official pro
tection, many Negroes and some whites came forward voluntarily, and lit
defiance of threats against their lives. Etoy Fletcher, Negro veteran, t<»M
how, on June 12, 1946, he had been seized and flogged with a heavy will
cable near Brandon, Miss., when he attempted to register to vote. He will
first chased from the courthouse by four white men, then taken to tlir
woods, made to undress and lie down on the ground, where he was lashed,
He was threatened with death if he made another attempt to register
Richard Daniel, Negro veteran of Gulfport, Miss., described how on July
2 he had been struck on the head by two election officials, then arrested by
a policeman and taken to City Hall where he was beaten unconscious. 1 If
was then tried and convicted on charges of drunkenness and disorderly con
duct. Dr. William Bender, a Negro minister from Tougaloo Collegej
Tougaloo, Miss., testified that he had been kept from the polls on election
day by two white men who insulted him and another white man who mri
him at the polls with a pistol. Joseph Parham, a very old man, testified that
the sheriff hald told him on election day: “You’re too old to get into
trouble,” and that white men had asked him “What kind of flowers do you
want?” Rev. C. M. Eiland, minister, of Louisville, Miss., said that two
white men stopped him at the polls and told him they didn’t want Negro
soldiers to vote, and if they allowed him to vote, the soldiers might vote too,
J. D. Collins, Greenwood, Miss., told how the mayor of Greenwood ami
two other leading white citizens had called him and A. C. Montgomery
and given them a list of the Negro veterans in the town, urging Montgomn y
and Collins to contact them and tell them not to visit the polls. T. S. Wilson
of Jackson, Miss., testified that thousands of Negroes would have registercl
and voted in Jackson if they had not been intimidated by the speeches ol
Senator Bilbo and by other threats and acts of terrorism. Percy Green,
editor of the Jackson Advocate stated that the work of the NAACP and the
Mississippi Progressive Voters League was almost suspended because of the
fear inspired by Bilbo’s campaign. It was the contention of witnesses that
the terror kept all but about 2500 of the state’s potential 500,000 Negro
voters away froi* the polls on election day. The hearing of the Senatr
Committee in Mississippi was headed by Sen. Allen J. Ellender, a supportn
of Senator Bilbo. The Committee’s report denied the existence of terror
in Mississippi.

December 4 .^ostell Jones told a federal court in Chicago how a Mississippi
sheriff had burned him with a blow torch, beaten him and broken his fingers
to force him to confess” to a murder he had not committed. Jones escaped
prison after being sentenced and serving part of the sentence. The federal
court freed Jones.

THE EVIDENCE 95

iWember 6. — John R. Fort and Letholian Waddles, two Negro veterans
and their families, were targets for an anti-Negro demonstration at the
Airport Housing Project in Chicago . They had moved into the Project along
with 91 white veterans and their families. When Theodore Turner, another
l Negro veteran had moved into the project a month before, a cordon of
1 v»o police had to be detailed to guard his life and those of his family. As
u result of this mob terrorization, seven other Negro families withdrew the
applications for housing which they had already filed with the authorities.
A reign of terror against Negroes was carried on in Greenwich Village,

| Nctv Yorl during 1946 and 1947- Fifteen to twenty hoodlums
attacked Miss Sarah Vaughan, Miss Naomi Wright and George Tread-
well, three entertainers of Cafe Society Downtown, as they entered a
nibway station on August 11, 1946. The two women were kicked, struck,
fcpat on and called filthy names, and the man was physically assaulted. The
1 luce reported to a nearby police station, but were told that the police were
loo busy to bother. On the same morning, Arthur Smith, a jeweler, was
chased into the arms of the police by a crowd. A few weeks earlier, in the
tame area, Revels Cayton was attacked by a gang. Still earlier, in the same
urea, J. C. Heard, a band leader appearing at Cafe Society, was struck from
behind. In June, 1946, Samuel Benskin, a pianist, was attacked. On April
11, 1947, Lt. Steve Kerr and his wife, Norma Kerr were dragged from
1 heir apartment in the Village because they had invited a Negro friend,
l 11 arles White, to live with them. The police were called three times dur-
ing the beating, but failed to respond. The following day, April 12, Charles
White and David McAdoo, Negro, were beset by a crowd in the neighbor-
hood. Both suffered scalp lacerations.

19 4 7

Marguerite Daisy Carr, 13, early in 1947 petitioned to attend a white
•.« hool in the District of Columbia because Negro schools offered only half
day’s work, due to overcrowding. Petition denied. The court held that it
was “not open for this court” to judge segregation in schools.
lomary 1. — Golden Yamar Howard, who had testified before the grand jury
investigating the Monroe, Georgia lynchings, was approached in Monroe by
1 wo white brothers who demanded to know what he had told the jury. He
was beaten about the face, then dragged to a shed behind the ice plant where
hr worked and beaten again.

hmuary 31. — When two white men accosted Edwin Way, a veteran, on the
highway near Woodford, South Carolina and accused him of breaking into
nne of their homes, Way denied their charges. The whites then tried to force
Way into a car and he shot at both of them in self defense. One white man
was killed. Placed on trial for “murder” in Columbia, S. C., Way received a
life sentence. Before the event on the highway, Way had been threatened by
.1 group of white railroad workers.

f binary 3. — At Osowatomie, Kansas, a lynch mob attempted to murder
George Miller, a section hand. The lynchers had already thrown a rope
around Miller’s neck when sheriff’s deputies rushed him to Lawrenceburg
(or safekeping. The lynching was averted.
hbruary n. — When police demanded to see his draft card, Harold Jones,
u fruit peddler, was a bit slow in taking out his wallet. Before he could get

GENOCIDE

it out, one policeman hit Jones with his fist. The two police then put him in
their car, drove him to a dark spot under the 155th Street viaduct in Net*
Yor\ City , knocked him down, kicked him, beat him with their nigh*
sticks and left him. When Jones was again able to move he returned ty
the place where he had dropped his wallet. There the same policemen miw
him, took him back under the viaduct and beat him again. In spite o| I
the fact that Jones had his upper plate broken; a puffy, closed right eye; 4
deep scalp laceration on the right side of the head; deep mouth cuts on il.
inside and outside of his lips; loosened lower teeth; bruises on both legs, oO
the stomach and on the back, complaints made to the 32nd precinct station
brought no results.

February 23. — A 60-year-old businessman, Leo Nettleton, was beaten by un
off-duty Nassau County policeman at the Harlem entrance to the T11
Borough Bridge in New Yor\. Nettleton’s car stalled as he was on his tv.n
home to Corona, and the car behind him, which happened to be a polio
car, crashed into him. The policeman and his white woman companion ;i;m
up to Nettleton, knocked him to the concrete, and began to beat him
They left him on the pavement and drove away. Taken to the Joint DiscaM
Hospital for treatment of a cut left eye; deep lacerations on his ears, tempi*
and chin; and deep knee and shin braises, Nettleton was in the hospilal
in the presence of a doctor when the policeman again appeared ami
threatened to blow Nettleton’s brains out.

February 23. — Election board hearings in Chicago early in 1947 heard eviden.t
of how Albert Janney, young Negro candidate for alderman in the aolh
ward, had his life threatened. The 20th ward had never been represeni<«l
by a Negro. A young Negro woman resident of the ward told how she hail
been visited in her home by a man who accused her of working in behall
of Janney. The visitor reminded her that when Octavious Grundy, a Ncgni,
had run for election for akLrman in the 1920’s, he had been found murderft!
on election eve. The caller said the same thing might happen to Janney.

February 25. — Dora L. Jones, 57, of Los Angeles, California, was revealed m
have been kept in a state of peonage for twenty-nine years by Albert Wesley
Ingalls and his wife, Elizabeth. Testimony revealed that the Negro woman
had been subjected to physical abuse, imprisonment in the Ingalls’ home, «
work day of about seventeen hours, threats of jail or an insane asylum, ami
deprivation of false teeth after all her own had been pulled. She had been
made to wear old clothing, sleep in bathtubs or in the back of automobiln
during the twenty-nine year period. Mrs. Ingalls was found guilty of vin
lating the 13th amendment, given a three-year sentence and a $2500 fiiif
which was later suspended when she agreed to pay Miss Jones $6000 In
back wages. Her husband was freed of the charges on the direct intervention
of U.S. Atty. Gen. Tom Clark.

March, 1947 . — Thejiome of Rev. and Mrs. A. C. Epps was damaged by *
dynamite explosion in Atlanta , Georgia . About two weeks before the dymt
miting, Mrs. Epps had been visited by ten white men who warned her to
move out of the neighborhood. She reported that she watched the men go,
and saw them in pleasant conversation with policemen parked in a car
across the street. In the same week the Epps’ home was bombed, two othn
houses in the same neighborhood were damaged by dynamite explosion*

March 12. — Joseph Kirk, a veteran, was half blinded by Birmingham city
police. Kirk was waiting for a street car when two police drove up, accused

THE EVIDENCE

I him of disorderly conduct, searched him and threw him into a car. In the
1 ,|* he was beaten unconscious by the officers. He awoke the next morning 1
li.c hospital with a bandage over his right eye and an arrest ticket near is
\ pillow. His eye had to be removed.

1.— Mr. and Mrs. Acgie Honton were severely beaten near D^r«r
Cu-orgia by white men who entered their apartment and falsdy identified
themselves as policemen. The white men forced the couple into a car and
I mruck them with a pistol.

U ay , -About 400 men stormed the St. Clair County Jail at Poll City,
llabama, and fired shots through the windows at Robert Hunt. State high-
way patrolmen finally dispersed the mob and two carloads of police took
I lunt to Birmingham for safekeeping During the transfer Hunt was nicked
on the arm and leg by flying glass when one bullet smashed a window.

U.iv 27— In Rich Square, North Carolina, Godwin Bush had been
irsted by local police on May 22 on a charge of attempted rape. He was
later taken to jail by several armed and masked white men and pushed 1 t
waiting car from which he leaped and ran as the thwarted mobsters fired

their rifles at him. ,

M.iy 1.— A sharp struggle broke out in the Federal prison at ort ea ™*'
worth, Kansas between Negro and white military prisoners and their
guards. The white prisoners had objected to eating in the same mess ha
with Negroes, and on the following day. May 2, 514 white prisoners
attacked 213 Negroes.

Wl(V s —Woodrow Drummonds, a veteran, was slapped by a white patrol-
man because their cars grazed each other The event occurred at Green-
wile, South Carolina on the opening day of the trial of lynchers of Willie

Earle. ,

Way 23 .— Godwin Bush was seized by lynchers from the Northampton
County Jail in Jackson, North Carolina The lynchers received the ,a.l
keys from the jailer. Bush was at first believed to be lynched. He
managed, however, to break away from the mob of armed ma k
mcn, S and gave himself up to two FBI agents. Bush was that ise
Central State Prison in Raleigh. (Charge against him was attempted
( ape” although the supposed victim, Mrs. Margaret Bryant (white) stated
that she couldn’t identify Bush.) Seven white men were arrested on charges
of attempting to lynch Bush; at least one of them confessed to the FBI,
naming six accomplices. All seven were at once granted bail of $2500 eac •

( )n May 28, day after the seven were arrested, newspapermen had to leave
I u kson because threats had been made against their lives in connection with
1 lie whole lynch attempt. An official who refused to be quoted old
„ ,,orters one of them “might be killed.” Reporters later were told that
they better get going “if they didn’t want their cars torn up. In the same
area on April 26, 1947, about a month before the attempt to lynch Bush
W illie Cherry and Dick Boone, charged with rape had been threatened
l>y lynchers while being held in the same jail from which Bush was taken.
They were saved by transfer to Raleigh State Prison.
lone io. — James Harris, 18-year-old Negro of Hurtsboro, Alabama, narrowly
, scaped death at the hands of a lynch mob after he was rescued by Mayor
1 lugh Van. A mob Of white men had already beaten Harris and put a rope
.round his neck when the Mayor arrived on the scene and with three assist-

98 GENOCIDE

ants, prevailed upon the would-be lynchers to release Harris in his custody
.Harris was later accused of attempted rape.

June 27.— Mr. & Mrs. William S. Smith of the Benning Road district, Wash I
ington, D. C., were severely beaten when they protested over having then j
property trespassed on by two white men driving a bull dozer. The men
left and returned with eight police who beat and kicked both Smiths will,
guns and blackjacks and arrested them both on charges of assault and battery.
lune 28.— Thomas Tingle, James Monroe Tingle and Henry S. Smiiii
were accused of attempted rape of three white girls in Little Rock
Mississippi on the night of June 28. Jailed in Decatur where police claimc.l
they confessed to alleged crime. Smith was taken to jail in Newton, Mill
irst trial resulted in a hung jury, with several white witnesses testifyinu
that the attempted rape did not take place. They voted eight for acquittal
tour for conviction, even in the face of this evidence. The Tingle brother,
testified they had been beaten brutally and that their “confession” had been
secured by this brutality. The second trial was held on August 29, where
the youths were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, an extraor
dinarily low sentence for the type of crime which they were alleged to have
committed. (NAACP appealed case) 8

August 7.— Lloyd C. Jones, 29, a disabled veteran, was shot by Patrolman
Francis Le Maire in New Yor\ City. Le Maire shot and beat Jones will,
his night stick in the Columbus Circle Park when Jones did not move on a.
fast as he wanted him to. Jones was charged with disorderly conduct, bill
was treed in Felony Court.

September 2,-Roy Williams, businessman, 1113 Washington Ave., Bronx
NewYor\, was beaten by 30th precinct police who knocked his teeth loo.sr
cut his arm, and fractured his right ankle. Williams was accosted by
police as he drove his car and was accompanied by his wife, a liehl
complexioned woman. h

September 27.— Charles Moore of Philadelphia charged that he was assaultnl
y trainmen on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad when he refused to move
tr0r ? p reserved seat ticket he had purchased from the Pennsylvania Rail
road Moore was assaulted in Florence, South Carolina when he was taka,
bodily from his seat. He sued both railroads for $25,000 in the Federal
Court of Easton, Pennsylvania, on March 20, 1948.

October.— James DeWitt was kidnapped in Hartsville, North Carolina and
carried by force to a lumber camp near Monroe, Georgia. In Oct. 1947, two
white men, John Ellis and J. W. Wilhelm were indicted by a Federal Grand
Jury for kidnapping and peonage. John Ellis pleaded guilty, was sentenced
to a year and fined $500.

October ri. Carnell Simmons, his family and two other Negro families,
moved into a house at 713 W. Fayette St., Baltimore, Maryland. Shortly
thereafter, a mofc began throwing stones and shooting into the house. The
house was also set afire. Simmons got his gun, fired at the mob, and killed
pjr' te , Smmon s was tried for murder and exonerated by Magistrate
Preston A. Pairo who held a man has a right to protect his home.

October 18.— Samuel T. Symonette, Harlem, New Yor\ City, candy store
owner, was permanently injured after a savage pistol whipping by Detec-

71 !V Cardlle ’ A1 2? nd 7 Kahn > Emanuel Berson, and James McCarthy
of the 28th precinct. The detectives claimed they saw Symonette taking
numbers from a woman they never produced. Symonette was subsequently

THE EVIDENCE

lound guilty of disorderly conduct. At the same time, his store at ioi W.
i,|$rd St., was completely wrecked by the detectives and Symonette was
lorced out of business, as a result.

V •>!> ember i. — Calvin Moore, a 1 6-year-old youth, was beaten by Patrolman
George Romanovich in the Brooklyn, New Yori {, Fort Greene Housing
nroject. Romanovich claimed the youth had a burglar tool and arrested
him. At the same time Otis Willis, 15, and Tyler Toulan, 16, were also
.11 rested and beaten in the 88th precinct.

November 10. — Don Alonzo Briggs, 47-year-old Harlem, New Yor\, seaman,
was beaten by Patrolman Bernard Martin of the 28th precinct in his home
iU 68 Lenox Ave. Briggs, a member of the National Maritime Union, was
nn the way up the stairs of his home when Martin and two white sailors
11 costed him. He was forced into his apartment after one of the sailors
•taid “look he has a white hat on, he looks like the man.’ 5 Briggs was taken
in the police station after being beaten and was released when he promised
in pay Martin $300.

November 18. — Howard White was sentenced to die in the electric chair
for “armed robbery,” a crime for which no white man would be likely to
icceive the death penalty. An appeal to the Mississippi State Supreme Court,
which was made on March 18, 1947, upheld the death sentence although
iluee of the Supreme Court justices denounced it as a “barbarous, cruel and
inhuman sentence.”

November 23. — James Simpson, Negro truck driver of Roc\ Island, Illinois,
arrested and charged with negligent driving, was attacked by police
officer James Swift, who beat him across the head with a blackjack and
struck him in the left eye, as a result of which he lost his sight in that
rye. He was left for hours without medical attention. When he was finally
irmoved to a hospital doctors discovered there was no possibility of restor-
ing his vision. Swift was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury the week of
October 16, 1948.

November 27. — Mrs. Rosa Lee Ingram and her sons Wallace and Sammie,
of Ellaville, Georgia, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the self-defense
slaying of John E. Stratford who had molested Mrs. Ingram. The mother
and her sons were originally condemned to death, but nation-wide protests
forced the commutation of their sentences by Ga. Supreme Court Judge
William H. Harper. [Mrs. Geneva Rushin, a daughter of the imprisoned
Mrs. Ingram, is a signer of this petition.]

I>rcember 5. — John Wesley Scott was beaten by six Memphis, Tennessee
officers who arrested him on charges of burglary and house breaking. The
officers were indicted in April, 1949 by a Federal Grand Jury.

December 25. — Willie and Bessie Banks of Boston, Massachusetts, were
walking home when Mrs. Banks suffered an attack of indigestion. The
intense pain caused Mrs. Banks to scream and her husband ran for a taxi
cab. A 200-pound patrolman, seeing the suffering woman, ordered her to
hush, and when she didn’t, banged her head against the pavement knock-
ing out her teeth. He then beat up Mr. Banks and arrested the couple for
assault and battery. Subsequently the conviction of the couple was reversed
in a higher court.

Sheriff Jenkins A. Hill of Clarke County, Alabama, and Deputy Willie H.
Harrell, Grove Hill, Alabama, were indicted on federal charges of beating
and torturing nine Negroes between Dec. 1947 an< ^ I une 1948. The persons

100

GENOCIDE

whose civil rights were violated were: George Dickinson, Robert Gorix#
Ed Finsh, Mose Nicholson, Leo W. Williams, John Allan Jr., Johnnv I
Mitchell-, Mattie Lee Poe and Edward L. Buck.

1948

Washington, D. C., hotels early in 1948 refused to grant accommodation,
to Negro boys who were part of an Automobile Association of New Y.nl
delegation. The boys had been chosen model schoolboy patrol member!
devoting their lives to the safety of schoolmates.

~ T ‘ le ^'Estate Board of Washington, D. C., adopted in 1948 this code I
ethics. No property in a white section should ever be sold, rented, advn
tised, or offered to colored people.”

—Larkin Marshall, Negro newspaper editor, announced his intention «l
running for Congress in Georgia. The Klan burned a cross in front of L
nouse and sent him warnings.

January.— Sen. Percell McKamey, Negro, applied with Ingeborg Frank*
(who had come from Germany) for a marriage license at Harrisburg, Pen,,
sylvania. They were refused by the clerk, who said it was “against il„
policy of his office to issue marriage licenses to interracial couples. Ctlrk't
action upheld by registrar of wills. When finally forced to issue lice]
b) a judge, the clerk threw pen in wastebasket afterwards

} Z7Z T WlLL r M L° RRI f oi F° r 1° l K, Virginia, was arrested and beaten
whde returnmg from his church watch meeting. Morris charged that polli

beaten thaT “ P ’ and whHe in police wagon, he was so severely
pital fo^ten days^ 1 ^ ^ ‘ n,UneS ’ he Was confined t0 the Marine Ho*

January 10.— Charles Speaker, 54, Maurice Provost, 40, and Bruce C.
Meale, 55, teachers at the New Orleans Booker T. Washington 1 Iiul,
School, were arrested by Police Sgt. Victor Barberot as they brought a crowl
of Negro students to view the “Freedom Train.” The Police officer becann

doS g TraTn” n Th Ca r er ^ “t “ lettb S the children view the “Fret

resisting arrest. 6 ^ Were charged Wlth ^fusing to move on tin!

January 11, r 94 8 -— Four white youths attempted to burn down the buildii.u
owned by Mrs. Daisy Banks, 870 West Street, Atlanta, Georgia. This wii
the fourth attempt to burn down the building and the youfhs were su*
pected of being connected with the outlawed “Columbians,” a terror srour

1 2 - V ^r DEV T' ON Le Grand, 33, of Brooklyn, New York was saC
whipped by 73rd precinct police in the station house. Le Grand charged 8 h!
was driving his car when two plainclothes men stopped him, ordered him
o he station house where they proceeded to accuse him of leafing a
watch and diamond ring he was wearing. Although Le Grand proved tin
articles belonged to him the detectives beat him with a rubber hose black
jacks and their fists, before releasing him. ’

January 26.— Frank F. Peterson, 43, an undertaker of New York Citv wM
manhandled and arrested on charges of disorderly conduct after hernia

January 29— Cleveland Pierce, veteran of World War II and a Her tin, 1
ounty. North Carolina filling station operator, was brutally beaten by [j„

THE EVIDENCE

101

Slate highway patrolmen, James W. Revis and John Hackett while he was
handcuffed. Pierce was arrested for speeding on a highway and was kicked
Hid stamped on by both police. Revis was fined $50. Hackett was freed of
Kwsnult charges brought by Pierce, while Pierce was found guilty of speeding.
wbruary. — The NAACP received an anonymous letter on behalf of 300 in-
mates of a Texas state prison farm camp. The letter read in part: “There
m no one we can go to and tell our troubles without being beaten and
lurked like we are dogs — not even a doctor. Do we have to be beaten and
run like cattle merely because we are in prison? Do we have to be worked
m the rain, or forever eat the food that a dog would not eat? We are not
isking for freedom until we have paid our debt to society, but we are asking
lor someone to make it safe here for us while we are here.”

The manager of the Texas prison system admitted that some of the
illeged conditions were true.

ft bruary 1. — Reginald Henry, 28, and his wife, Mary, 22, of 538 E. 15th St.,
llronx, New Yor were beaten by a gang of over fifteen who broke into
their apartment. Five of the men were identified and arrested. They were:

I iwrence Madison, 510 E. 150th St.; John Haynes, 19, 441 E. 146th St.;
|ohn Hines, 19, 552 E. 150th St.; James McGrath, 523 E. 150th St.; and
|«mes Spinelli, 19, 510 E. 150th St. The Henrys had recently moved into
their basement apartment.

February 8. — Five Negroes were attacked by a gang of over twenty whites in
< oney Island, New Yor\, as they walked along the street late at night. The
fang used sticks, iron pipes and bottles. All five were severely injured. They
were Luther Bostic, 23, 2823 W. 30th St.; his wife Grace, 23; James
Spears, 28, 2829 W. 30th St.; James and Jolin McClain, 64 Community St.,
Jersey City.

ft bruary n. — J ohn McKenzie, Ralph Cooper, Horace Wilson, James
Thorpe, McKinley Forrest and Collis English, since become known as
the “Trenton Six” were arrested and accused of killing William Horner, a
merchant in Trenton, N. /. They were sentenced to death, but the courts
later granted a retrial because of trial errors. Evidence shows the men could
not have committed the crime, and were victims of a terror police dragnet
in the Negro community at that time. Retrial, in which the state’s own
witnesses recanted, resulted in the freeing of four — two found guilty. Fur-
1 her appeals for the two are under way. (Miss Bessie Mitchell, sister of Collis
English, is a signer of this petition.)

ft bruary 13. — A one-armed Negro Navy veteran, Leroy McGowan, was
arrested in Jackson, Mississippi , and was beaten by seventeen police officers
ai the corner of Amite and North Farish Streets. The case was reported to
Att. Gen. Clark.

If bruary 19. — Crosses burned in Negro section of Gadsden , Alabama,
frbruary 20. — Mrs. Mamie Patterson, 54, of Tuscumbia,' Alabama, mother
of six children, was raped at pistol point by Charles Berryhill, 29, and
I lerschel Gasque, 27. The two men forced their way into the Patterson
home, struck James Patterson, her husband, over the head, beating him
into unconsciousness. The men claimed they were trying to collect a debt
from Patterson. They then raped Mrs. Patterson.

Ve bruary 21. — In Jackson, Mississippi , J. V. Williams, a Negro veteran, was
arrested in a Negro cafe. The officer pushed him into the street and then
shot him in the hip, claiming he had attempted to escape. While the veteran

102

GENOCIDE

lay bleeding in the street the arresting officer was joined by several othful
who pistol- whipped the Negro as he pleaded for mercy. The case W||
reported to Att. Gen. Clark.

Wee\ of February 22. — Mrs. Viola Smiley of 117 W. 141st St., New |
City, charged she was beaten by four detectives, her clothes torn, her brftttil
injured, when they searched her for alleged policy slips. Mrs. Smiley
attacked in the A. W. Tailor shop, 608 Lenox Avenue.

Weeh^ of February 28. — Mrs. Billie Moton Holmes of Flint, Michigan, w*
beaten by Patrolman Milton Rye when he served a summons on her. Mm
Holmes had ordered Morris Roumm, landlord, from her home, and I# 1
returned with the officer. Mrs. Holmes said Rye struck her in the face BM j
dragged her down a stairway to the police car.

March . — Charged with “rape” by a 48-year-old widow, Mrs. W. P. Irwin nl 1
Shrewsbury, Louisiana, two young Negro men who were working on a gut
bage truck were thrown into the Gretna, Louisiana, jail. The two mcft
23-year-old Ocie Jugger and 21-year-old Paul Washington, were not in*
until eight months later. The white widow did not identify either of the tWH
as her attackers at the trial, but the all-white jury sentenced them to (In
When Jugger and Washington, both poor and unable to get legal aid, vvm
scheduled to die, they had been in jail for a year and a half. Their cases cnm»
to the attention of the outside world when a few lines of type in wlnti
Southern newspapers announced their impending execution. When a nr#
lawyer, brought in by a volunteer defense committee came in to appflj
and handle the case, it was found that Jugger had mysteriously “escapnr
from the steel-walled death cell of the modern Gretna jail. He has ncvfl
been heard from since. No one has seen him. The trial revealed that Juggn
and Washington had been beaten, whipped and starved to obtain their “colt
fessions.” The case of Paul Washington has been carried twice to the Loll!
siana Supreme Court, and to the U.S. Supreme Court. The latter court
refused to hear Washington’s appeal on October 19, 1950. What is bciitfl
asked in Washington’s case is a new and fair trial. Washington has a youiij
wife and a baby daughter, born while he was first placed in prison. (Mn
Washington is a signer of this petition demanding equality for the Ncgi*’
people and an end to the genocide practiced against them.)

March 13. — Alton Fowler of Palm Beach, Florida, was beaten by 3 poll,*
officers and a railway agent and forced to confess that he stole cigarcWM
from a railway box car. Federal indictments were handed down again*!
Deputies Euell M. Culbreth, Walter I. Minton, City Patrolman William M
Barnes and Special Agent Warden Bader of the Florida East Coast Railroad

March 22.— David Bryant, 14-year-old Negro of New Bern, North CarolM
was sentenced to serve thirty years in the Central State Prison after tin
youth pleaded guilty through state-appointed lawyers to second-degf*
burglary. Bryant was given the severe sentence in Orange County Supeiin*
Court, March 15, and was jailed March 22. He was alleged to have enteml
the home of Lucille Eliot of Chapel Hill.

March 26.— Leo “Snub” Mosely, famous Negro trombonist, was beaten u<
the Shangri-La night club in Astoria, Long Island, New Yor{ by off-dwh
policeman, George V. Killoran. Killoran became enraged when a woman tii
his party admired the Negro musician, and he followed him into the mew \
room where he savagely beat Mosely. Subsequently, Killoran had to pay
$700 damages to Mosely, who sued him.

THE EVIDENCE

103

. a Oles Pringle of Cincinnati, Ohio, was beaten by three officers

teTn* olfan »'"= Trf saddler, John L. Scudde, and

luirph W. Rouse.

„ -Annie Grayson, 23, and Malinda Jackson of Wetum\a, Alabama,
raped by John O. Howard and Jack Oliver, both 30 years .old. The
Negro women were riding with their husbands Sam Grayson and Wilham
|,„ Lon when the white men shot the tires of their car and forced them
1 , at gun point. They were taken into a wooded area, raped, and then

nibbed The rapists were later arrested.

lL,i 2 % — Michael Booker, 35, 1182 Jackson Ave., BronxNew Yorl^ a
Hippie' charged that Anthony Russo, 40, Newark, N. J. bus driver beat
5 shoved him from a bus. Booker charged that between Jersey City - and

Newark two men got on and one said “Where I come from n- sarent

I, wed to sit in front.” Russo agreed with the man and nadeoto
11 marks about Negroes. An argument ensued and Russo pushed Booker
1 tmn the bus into the road. A motorist picked him up.
y„ v —Joseph Beauford, 27-year-old Negro, and five companions, were
mi u ked in a parking lot at Broadway and East Houston Street, New York
, „ v by a gang of twenty-five or thirty whites. Beauford was badly beaten
„„l was on the critical list in both Columbus Hospital and Bellevue Hos-
He received no treatment on admission to Columbus and was sent
| to Bellevue. Two were arrested as a result: one 17-year-old white youth,
I uniel Sgobbo, and a 15-year-old whose name was not given.
fry •; — George Edgar Wallace and John Wesley Grant of Chicago
. barged that in Covington, Kentucky, while on the ( Greyhound Bus en
unite to Clarksdale, Miss., the bus driver told them g« back seat

w hcre n s belong.” Another driver, they declared, got a fire ax and

tinea tened to kill them. They were then arrested by Kentucky poUce anc
lodged over night in the Covington jail and made to pay a fine. They

mied the bus company for $70,000. . . j 1 • 1 j

Liv p-Gus Lawrence, 54, of Norfolk, Virginia, was beaten and kicked a
1 be Precinct Station 2. Lawrence declared he was knocked down, kicket
and stamped on and that he lay on the jail floor for nme hours with broke,
nl.s Lawrence also said police beat a Negro in the cell with him at th
nine named Millard Massenberg. Police claimed Massenbcrg beat Lawrenc.
t/,,v k-Mrs. Lena Thomas of Harlem, New York, was beaten by 281
precinct Patrolman Jack Shep. Subsequently, the entire community wr
(roused and hundreds of police were rushed into the area. Mrs. Thom:
' was beaten at the Foremost Food Market when the manager called tf
1011 during an argument between Mrs. Thomas and a food checker. Mr
Fhomas sued the New York Police Department for $.0,000 damages.

Miy 16 . — Ed Blaine, 30, of Memphis, Tennessee, was blinded 1 by Patrolm;
l.unnie E. Bryan. Blaine had been arrested and claimed that Bryan ar
ullicer Carl W. Brewer had robbed him of $10. When he reported it to ll
police station, Bryan hit him across the face while he was wearing glass.
Police Inspector Dwyer ordered the officers to take Blaine to the hosp.t;

during the trip, they blackjacked and clubbed him. Later, Blain.
,,ght eye had to be taken out. Bryan was fined $51 and Brewer was foui

innocent of the charges. , ... . t » . «

M n> 18— A fiery cross was burned in Gadsden, Alabama, in front of the hoi
of K. J. Sullivan, president of the Local NAACP branch of Etowah Cour

GENOCIDE

104

The branch was holding a meeting at the time. Sullivan declared th«| i
May 14 his house had been plastered with stickers that read, “Sullit*
the KKK is watching you.” Police were never able to discover the ci»l|
who set the crosses afire.

May 22. — Five crosses burned in Negro districts of Dade County, Florida* '

May 25. — At Norman, Oklahoma, in the case of Mrs. Ada Lois FisHiir M
entry to the University of Oklahoma law school, District Judge Justin Hll f
shaw, at the request of Oklahoma Attorney General Mac Q. William**)
ruled out testimony by Dr. Robert Redfield, professor of anthropology
the University of Chicago, that long study had failed to show convimiy
evidence of “any difference between Negro and white students on the <M|
tion of intellectual capacity.”

June. — Curtis Diunkard, taxi driver of Boston, Massachusetts, was beaten •
local police station and sustained a broken jaw. The attack on Drink
was protested by the local NAACP on August 4th in a mass meeting at m
Twelfth Baptist Church.

lune 2. — A 15-foot cross was burned in Knoxville, Tennessee.

]une 2. — Negro canning plant workers were attacked by group of white m»
on election night in Okeechobee, Florida.

June 7. — Stephen Moses and his wife Tressie Mae Moses, of Brooklyn, N H
York, were beaten by two plainclothes men. The Moses were preparing •
leave for a vacation and were carrying bundles across the street wlo
they were accosted by the plainclothes men. Moses resented being ijm
tioned by the men who did not identify themselves, and the men proceeds
to pistol-whip him. Mrs. Moses was also beaten at the time.

June. — Haktness Flowers, of Leake County, Mississippi, asked the t|l
Supreme Court in November 1949, to reverse his conviction of assault win
intent to kill for firing on a mob of white night-riders who had surrouml*
his home. He and his brother, James, were both convicted after one ol if
mob was injured.

June 12. — A band of masked Klansmen raided a Negro Girl Scout tiim
near Bessemer, Alabama. Camp was closed, and two white instructor! ♦
charge were given twenty-four hours to get out of town.

July 5. — Quincy Lee Ross was beaten in San Pedro, Calijornia, by motorcyilt
patrolman Andrew Clark. Ross had seen a cousin of his sitting in a par(jjj
car. He went over to speak to her. The driver of the car had been stopmwl
by the officer and was getting a ticket. When Ross walked up, the Ifhei
cursed him and asked what he wanted. He replied that he wanted to s|h-*i
to his cousin, whereupon the officer struck him and arrested him. Lata ..
jail he was again beaten. He was charged with interfering with an offatf

July 8. — Four Negro bricklayers, hired in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to vvwl
in Palmer, in Grundy County, were driven away by a band of white inn
“We won’t c*en allow Negroes to come into Grundy County, much l»»
work here,” they said.

July 1 6. Magistrate Joseph Rainey of Phdadelphia, Pennsylvania, was bcaln
and arrested. Charges of disorderly conduct were subsequendy dismissed,

July 23. — Two Negro sailors stationed in Orange, Texas, were beaten I.
officers P. Brousaard and A. Powell. The officers have beaten other sailtu
and Negro soldiers, it is charged.

July 23.— A posse of 200 armed white men, including police, searching ||
Thurman Fulgham, 20-year-old Negro, so terrorized the Negro comm..

THE EVIDENCE

105

Ly t) f Dentville, Mississippi, that seventy-five armed themselves and took

i.lui'c in the woods. According to the Associated Press, one section ot the
L’' was “searching Negro houses in the area and carrying Negroes off to
..I ,,t Hazlehurst.” Chief deputy Sheriff E. L. Bishop said th ?N e ^oes
being taken to jail “for questioning and for safekeeping— to keep them

#way from the mob at Dentville. .

h • 1 — A mob of about 200 white men gathered outside jail at O cilia
Ugia, demanding custody of a Negro man charged with molesting white

cross was burned at Stone Mountain, Atlanta, Georgia before
liiHided Ku Klux Klansmen.

./, u —Leon and Alfonso Lipscomb, brothers and both veterans, were
.hot in Brooklyn, New York by Patrolman Frank Hogan in front of their
home at 1458 Bedford Avenue. Hogan was drunk at the time.

o.— Two crosses were burned near Negro settlement in Riviera Beach,
flori/a, following a proposal to the town council that another Negro hous-

t-A cross was burned near Negro meeting in Columbia, South Caro-
lina where voting in Democratic primary had been discussed.

|u„ ( , io. — Rev. Archie Ware, 66, was attacked at Calhoun Balls, South
inn, Una, after he had voted in the Democratic primary. In an affidavit
l,|,,l with Att. Gen. Tom Clark, Rev. Ware listed the names of h.s attack-
, u n „d two policemen whom he charges saw the assault and refused to pro-

feifm' u.— Mrs. Lula Glass of Brooklyn, N. Y., appealed to Bunnell, Florida,
mi Imrities to help her find her son, whom she said was recruited by a white

for farm work in Florida during December of previous year. Said

til,; had heard from relative that her son, Tillman Stovall, was being held

In peonage and fed bread and water. . . c .

LJ,/ 23— The house of Charles L. Full, 12862 St. Aubin Street,
l),-troit, Michigan, was fired and the garage completely burned. The
M A A CP demanded an investigation. It noted that several other Negro-
nwned homes in this area had been under attack by the Corville District

.rovement Association, a hate group. The Arson Squad investigated.

23— The home of Cecil Marshall, 17803 St. Aubin Street, Detioit,
Lhigan, was fired and the garage destroyed. The NAACP demanded an
Investigation. It noted that several other Negro-owned homes in this area
\ m \ been under attack by the Corville District Improvement Association, a
luiic group. The Arson Squad investigated. ,

24.— A cross was burned in the Negro section of Anderson, South

iuuust 27. — A public meeting of the Ku Klux Klan was held at Cordele,

Georgia. . .

\, number 1 .— There were 12 cross burnings in central Florida.

I# Member 4. — Two police were charged with arresting and threatening
Negro youth in Fulton County, Georgia, who refused to obey their order

lo go to church. , . , ,

t Member 9.— Livert Jones, 23, of Augusta, Georgia, escaped death at the

limcls of a hooded gang that kidnapped him. Jones had applied for civil
, .vice examination to be a policeman. The gang pulled him from his home
hi gun point and put him in a car. Jones, however, grappled with the men

io6 GENOCIDE

in the back seat, managed to open the door and jumped from the spcnl..,
car.

September 21. — Police were needed to disperse groups of white men tin.
ening two Negro plasterers brought in to work in the all-white count ) i
Dawson , Georgia.

October 9. — A cross was burned before a home where a meeting was Mil
to protest a new municipality. The new municipality would prevent •
building of Negro housing units in Miami , Florida.

October 26. — A 12-year-old Negro girl was raped by Robert L. Gerlach M
Marvell , Arkansas. Gerlach stopped the child, forced her into his car, 1.
her to a secluded wooded area and raped her. Gerlach was sentenced M
ten years in the penitentiary.

October 28. — The Ku Klux Klan distributed handbills announcing, it woflll
ride through eight Florida towns on election eve.

October 30. — Anthony Hardison, 25, veteran, was beaten, arrested and liltf
incommunicado in the Raymond St. jail of Brooklyn, New Yor{. Hanli •
a student of radio and television, was arrested and charged with pun*
sion of burglar tools. He was carrying his radio equipment at the tiftj
Subsequendy he was convicted and sentenced to three years in Sing Sill*

November 1. — The Ku Klux Klan burned two crosses: one in front of I
courthouse at Tus^egee, Alabama, and other at the intersection lcajl
to Tuskegee Institute, a Negro college.

November 1. — Four towns in central Florida had crosses burned in ll*
Negro residential areas on election eve. Fifty cars, each containing In.,
two to four hooded Klansmen, drove through Plymouth, Tavares, Lcesbfll
and Wildwood.

November 2. — Postal authorities were checking on hundreds of letters m
to Negro voters in Nashville, Tennessee : “Keep away from the polls Nov ,
— KKK” and “The Klan knows YOU.”

November 3. — A Klan motorcade burned trail of crosses, mostly in Nr#*
residential districts, from Mount Dora to Miami, Florida.

November 3.— Nelson Burns, 48-year-old father of Herman Burns, a yowl
killed by Los Angeles police, was himself savagely beaten by police. )N.li
accosted Burns while he was driving his truck. They stopped him, examiim*
his license and asked him if he was the father of the boy who was kill* 1
He replied ‘y es’ and was immediately arrested. In the police station wta
he asked for the use of the phone to notify his family, he was beaten. ]fm»
reported this to the Civil Rights Congress.

November 5.— Pvt. Vertie Wheeler of Co. G, 25th Inf., Ft. Benning, Gcorlk
was beaten by civilian police while military police looked on. Whn»k
was beaten in Colombus, Georgia, by three police who kicked and beat In-
with night sticks.

November 23.— Bayard Jenkins was convicted for the murder of Mrs. Katin 1
Meller, 43, in June, 1948. On December 8, two weeks after convuin.*
Herbert Gulembo, a white grave digger, confessed to Saginaw, Michm*
authorities that he and not Jenkins had killed Mrs. Meller. After pufS
campaign, new trial was granted Jenkins on technical grounds, in Sept*,
ber, 1949.

December 12. — A Klonvokation was held at Macon, Georgia, at City Auil
torium two thousand hooded Klansmen attended to hear Dr. Samuel Ci.-

December 20. — Davis Knicht, 23, who served in the United States N^v

THE EVIDENCE

107

1, ,, white man, was sentenced to five years in prison in Mississippi, after
...iiiying Junie Scradney, white woman, on testimony that his great-grand-

ihiii her was a Negro. , n

u, tuber 22.— The Ku Klux Klan paraded through the streets of Bessemer,

ikbuma in a fifty-car caravan. , D .

,.mber 22.— The Ku Klux Klan paraded through the streets of Brighton,

1949

I'lunist Hazel Scott, wife of Representative Adam C. Powell, refused ser-
,|ir in a Pasco, Washington, lunch stand although she had been snowbound

•ml without food for hours. _ 7 . , . . A p.

iv.mr of Capitol Christian Church in Tallahassee, Florida, invited Dr.
Unis E. Hudson, chaplain of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College
Itti Negroes, to speak during Brotherhood Week. Board of Elders cancelled

lln invitation. , . . , . ,

1 1„ American Medical Association, at national convention, maintained
white only” membership in segregated territory and other areas, and also
. I used to permit Negro physicians located in segregated areas to affiliate

M|t a purely national level. ^ , , .. £

lh. Ralph Johnson Bunche, former mediator in Palestine and director o
||„ United Nations Trusteeship Council for Non-Self-Governing Territories,
i ll it necessary to turn down appointment as Under Secretary o tate or
llu United States because his children would not be allowed to attend the
tyhool of their choice in Washington, D. C. , .

W 1 1, t.iAM Loew, of East Orange, New Jersey, advertised his home for sale
i.» either whites or Negroes. Received numerous threats, including bell lo

Mr u roes And Suffer ” , , , ,

try 14.— Police cleared the path for a parade of armed and hooded Klans-

mrn through Opelika, Alabama.

U,<n/ 17.— At Talmadge College, Alabama, forty automobiles, filled with

ded Klansmen, rode through the campus, warning the student body

itnt jo participate in the Alabama Students Conference on Civil Rights.
U Ml ,ry 22.— A cross was burned in the Negro section of Suffolk, Virginia .

Virginia. . .

rtmry 27.— Police escorted a motorcade of robed men bearing an electric

. M,v; and KKK pennants in Tallahassee, Florida.

1 1 1 1 Jt y 9— Two hundred and sixty-nine hooded Klansmen paraded in the
Min through streets of Denmark, South Carolina, carrying red flares
I'nuty 19. — A five-foot cross was burned in front of the Jefferson School
1, Negro school) in Union, New Jersey , ^ where a meeting was held to
1 1 1 otest the death sentence imposed on the “Trenton Six.”
buiary 19. — Three crosses were burned in front of the Miami Shores
1 Florida) Community Church. A Negro minister had been invited to speak

... the white congregation. .

Luiiry 19. Ons Smith, Electrical Workers Union leader was blinded after
1 in; beaten by Erie, Pennsylvania, police who seized him during an auto-
I, fie accident. Smith was beaten by Patrolmen Harry Staszewski and

io8

GENOCIDE

William Podbielski who admitted using blackjacks. He was charged *

SSSS* ^ » f -* - isa :

F riTSea 9 r^nd° t h T ^ SeVeral hooded ™n ft

Fi» ! n -u! threatened bystanders in Talladega, Alabama.

February 22 In W a™ 6 c m ? r0nt °*. homes in Talladega, Alabm

s4!l 1 m " ,,n8 at which Dr - “ g -» ««u*. S/sj

F ‘ , £Sv 2 Sl? , KTux N ^ r ° h0y ‘ N ;° S ¥ d b! ' fiv ' “ hi “ ™» »ho all,
tnemselves Ku Klux Klansmen at Columbus, Georgia. The bovs refused ■

hoid W Weerspe e aker Prindpal ^ $haken hand$ with a white Brod,

February 26.— In a signed statement sent to the Pittsburgh Courier Wm
Jackson 35-year-old longshoreman, member of Local ram IntT£n«fi
mens Association, AFL, charged that he had been brutally beaten ki<l
and stam p ed on by New Orleans, Louisiana, police of the Fnst Precinct A.

r i r„o7d rs :z

l m > s rT e™p«y, buf*;!”,]:,

to the First Precinct static^ ^ r patro1 Wa S on and took Jack.,,

Tennessee. ^ W3S burned on Re — oir Hill, ColumC

"'matv^pr" Ha “ ILT0N ’ 2 °- Virginia, was sentenced to three year, I '

Alabama. ~ ‘ g d a " el S h teen-car parade through Gadsfa

X?L“ , d 7 t 1

tees** in “t; saj

F “- *. *

THE EVIDENCE 109

■ Ins hands, Fowler charged, while the others took turns beating him with a
I thick leather strap.

Wntch 14. — Mrs. Catherine Scales, 27, was attacked in a Coney Island,
| New Yor\ bus by the driver, Michael Carras, 25, and John Poulos, 23. Mrs.
1 Si ales, pregnant at the time, suffered a miscarriage.

iioi h 18. — Warren Crawford, 396 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn, A lew Yorl^ t
| • I urged he was severely beaten and assaulted in the 28th Precinct in Harlem
w hen he reported being robbed. Police claimed he struck one of them and
"demanded to be arrested.”

March 18. — The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals freed a 34-year-old

■ Negro, Leon Johnson, and ruled that a state cannot extradite chain gang
I Ingitives whose custodians inflict “unusual, brutal or inhuman punishment.”
I I con Johnson was convicted of murder in Georgia in 1943 and escaped six

months later. He was arrested in Pittsburgh and held there for six years
under a warrant issued by former Governor Arthur James. Johnson has
I 1 (intended that prison guards would kill him if he were returned to Georgia.
March 24.' — Three houses occupied by Negroes in the North Smithfield district
• •I Birmingham, Alabama, were shattered by dynamite.

March 25. — The home of Bishop S. L. Green of Birmingham, Alabama, was
bombed by terrorists who resented Negroes moving into a previously white
community. Birmingham police failed to find the terrorists.

March 25. — Alonzo Guyton, Purple Heart veteran, was beaten and kicked
! I»y Brooklyn, New Yor\ police of the 79th Precinct. Guyton and friends
were walking down the street when the plainclothesmen accosted them,
(iuyton was knocked to the sidewalk when he demanded that they identify
themselves.

March 2 6. — Manzie Thomas of Orlando, Florida was seized by two carloads
n! men, carried to a wooded area near Fairville and flogged until uncon-
n ious. Thomas reported the kidnapping to Detectives J. R. Beach and John
Willard.

March 29. — A public meeting of the Ku Klux Klan was held at Americus,
( Georgia,

1 1 1 2. — Seven Negroes were flogged by a mob of fifty to seventy-five masked
und robed men, at Hoofer, Georgia. A trial later established that the sheriff
nl Dade County, John W. Lynch, and three deputies, turned the men over
m KKK mob. The sheriff was found guilty in March, 1950, and sentenced
to one year in prison.

If nl 9. — Edward L. Hayward, 24-year-old postal employee of Los Angeles,
( alifornia was beaten by police after a traffic altercation. Hayward was
hraten with a pistol by two plainclothesmen who then arrested him for
assault with a deadly weapon. The charge was later changed to a mis-
demeanor.

I (nil 10. — When 40-year-old Samuel Spears paused at an information table
id up on a New Orleans , Louisiana street corner to examine literature dis-
played for voters by the Young Progressives, he was mauled about by police
und carried to a precinct station in a police car. Spears was beaten as soon
is he reached the station, in spite of the efforts of several organizations to
prevent the brutality. He also lost his job as porter in an optical goods
lompany. As a result of the beating, Spears, a small and rather frail man,
had a cut chin, burst ear drum, bruises and contusions.

Slay. — New Orleans , Louisiana police invaded the campus of a Negro uni-

IIO

GENOCIDE

versity and dragged 1 8-year-old Emanuel Butler out of the chemiillt
building into their squad car and to the police precinct station. The Dillm
University student had been in a chemistry class at the time when a tu|
posed incident had occurred with two white women. He was first held ,
the charge of disturbing the peace" and then the charge was changed ■

, r TillT I 0 ' £nt ^- W ° men r f ° r , lmmoral Purposes.” The entire student I

vou J RmW ^ T to facult y members, the president of the school aid

hrmirr I famil > 'protested the groundless charge and jj

brutal treatment of the Negro student.

i° ^ EAL ’ Far Roc K awa y, New Yor\ civic leader, was beam
and arrested by detectives of the 21st Division who claimed he had Imh
writing policy slips. O’Neal was subsequently freed of the charges.

M Pete7mTs^ C T E w 107 W f ' 43rd Street ’ Ncw Yor k. and his frieml
er Marshall 63 West 140th Street, were beaten by Patrolman M„

a ? U ^ of the Mounted Squad One as they were on the way home linn
worlc. They were arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.

Wee\ of May 5.— George Ammon Lillie, 27-year-old blind veteran w.i
savagely beaten by deputies from the Sheriff’s office in Houston Tex*,
According to Lillie and Johnnie Mac Holmes, his business associate, X
blind man was beaten when deputies questioned him about suspects n,

sficks'and 1 a W ni tT ° f 3 whke S irL Lillie was beaten wifh nijtl

sticks and a pistol was jammed into one of his eyes.

ee\ of May 5— Shelton Lorick, 76-year-old farmer, was taken from In

° m ? * n Lexington County, South Carolina, at midnight by fifteen nun

aTkft Wa l ,lk “ “ ,h ' “ d 'til',

m* was that ha knew whiL'^ wS?“o^he night”” S°

^“l hdP ' d b " *“■ i

May 14.— William Milburn, of Brooklyn, New Yor\, was severely beJtf
LV W ° ij cmes a u s he escorted his wife home from a movie. Milburn ,,
blackjacked near the edge of an East River pier and ordered m Tump
^ river, e reported the case to the 84th Precinct, pointed out the delft
tives to precinct officials, but his charges were ignored.

rU ^ C, T Merriweather, Judge Mercer Mance and two womfH

companions, Miss Emily Stuart and Miss Staheleen Stuart, weTeamsd

C Slttl u S ln the “r r ar 3t 3 sandwlch stand in Indianapolis, Indiana Tl„

2 r s^stndT" ° f COm P lexion > — -cial workers.
to bf>ostUute e s!” USe eSC ° rtS WCre Negr0CS ’ the women were ~,l

M :L 2 r SeVen Ne L gr0 n S were seized in Dade C°»»ty, Georgia by a mob ..I
Lynch Xh,d W ,h™T«X ^ W " e tr ° m Sh ' ,iff '*

^ wh “ skip ™" 1

™ b » b «

III

THE EVIDENCE

Krv. H. Frank Ledford and Rev. Luther Brown were the witnesses.

M , r ^ 0 f June 5. — Over 200 white men surrounded the homes of Atlanta
Negroes on Ashby Street between Greensferry and West End Avenues and
warned them to move out and turn their property over to whites. Uniformed
police are reported to have accompanied the mob.

Mr 12.— Richard D. Brown of Harlem , New Yor\ City, was shot and killed
|.y Abraham Yudenfreund. At the same time, the policeman, off duty at

I Ik* time, shot and wounded James Lee Taylor, cousin of Brown. Yuden-
1 1 nind had interfered in an argument Brown was having with his wife

II the corner of 115th Street and Fifth Avenue at the time.

) Hnr 21— A mob attack occurred in St. Louis , Missouri when about 200 white
Imodiums attacked some fifty Negro youths, swimming in the Fairgrounds
Park Municipal pool, with baseball bats, clubs and knives. This was followed
l>y sporadic attacks on Negroes in other parts of the city.
lu/y 1 —John Henry McCullers, Negro farmer and father of six, was beaten
with heavy sticks during June 1949, in Clay County, Alabama, he told
Irlferson County grand jury.

Inly— Marshall Johnson, 15, and his sister Edwina, 16, of Newark, New
|rrsey, were visiting relatives an Montgomery, Alabama. They boarded a
. iiy bus and, not knowing of the segregation law, sat in front. The driver,
V T. Law, drew a pistol and kicked them off the bus. They were arrested
ind held in jail for two days. Judge Wiley C. Hill, Jr. threatened to send
I lie children to reform school until they were 21.
fn/y 1. — Hattie Cook, 29-year-old Negro woman of High Point, North Caro-
lina, was shot and critically wounded by a white dance hall operator, O. L.
Wcrst, who fired into a crowd of Negroes in Winston Salem.
july 12.— The Appellate Division of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard the
1 use of Fletcher Mills, who fled a lynch mob in Alabama after he fought
nil an assault from a white landlord with a knife. He was arrested by the
I 1)1 in Philadelphia on the Alabama Fugitive Act. An appeal is scheduled
in be heard in his case.

My 12.— The Appellate Division of New Yor\ gave Clarence Jackson a
temporary reprieve from being returned to a Georgia prison camp where
lie said “certain death” awaited him. He escaped in 1948.
july ,9. — Drayton Williams, 30, of Brooklyn, a bus driver on Staten Island,
New Yor\, charged that he was beaten by a white inspector, John Miller,
mid Miller’s son, Pete, because he was “fresh.” A policeman to whom
Williams complained threatened to arrest him instead of his attackers, who
I i.ul severely injured his right hand. Williams was one of the first Negroes
in be assigned to the Staten Island run by the Board of Transportation,

M . , ^ of July 20. — Woodrow White’s home in Chattanooga, Tennessee was
Ik mibed after he had lived there only one month. He had purchased from
m white family. The explosion ripped a hole in the porch and shattered
windows.

Inly 25. — Masked men beat five Negroes and shot two of them in Columbia,
South Carolina . A Negro minister, Rev. M. W. Jackson, reported the
macks. Among the victims were John Bates, 45, and Elliott Bates, two
of three brothers who were beaten. John was shot. The wife of one of the
Brothers was beaten as was a small girl relative.

Inly 27. — The home of Roscoe Johnson of Chicago , Illinois, was attacked
hy a mob of over 2,000 whites with rocks and flaming gasoline soaked rags

1 12

GENOCIDE

in an attempt to drive him from his newly bought home on the South Si|) I
Though over 200 police were on the scene no attempt was made to dispHto I
the mob nor were any arrests made. Johnson was a post office employ' 1
and a substitute school teacher.

August . — Six Negro seamen, British citizens of the West Indies, were jaiU
on charges of disorderly conduct when they refused to accept a jim < m
drinking fountain installed on their ship by a white repair crew while ii
ship lay in the port of Savannah, Georgia.

August. — James Montgomery was freed from the Illinois Statesville Pcimim
tiary after having served twenty-five years for a crime that never occui n
Montgomery was sentenced to life in 1925 for “raping” a 62-yeaMA' i
woman. Federal Judge Michael L. Igoe released him on a writ of hal>w-
corpus in 1949 after witnesses testified that a medical report showed tli* I
woman had not been raped, but it was not put in evidence at the trU
Montgomery received letters threatening to turn him over to the Ku Kit*
Klan if he tried to defend himself against the rape charge. Judge l|
ruled that the issue in the 1924 trial “was not the guilt or innocence of ll*
crime of rape — but that of racial subjugation.”

August. — Lester Tate, 31, Los Angeles Negro shop steward, member of tl»
Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, faced extradition to Virginia. It
was arrested for attempted robbery of a small store in Princess Ann* .
Virginia, in 1942 and was sentenced to ten years on the chain gang, ittl
escaped in 1943, came to Los Angeles. He is married and the father 1*!
four children. He was arrested in August, 1949 on a minor charge which wit '
dismissed, but he was held on a fugitive warrant. Governor Tuck M j
Virginia has demanded his return. His union and the Civil Rights Conp.i* •
provided bail for him.

August 13. — Dynamite was thrown from speeding car at homes of IWM|
Negro ministers in the North Smithfield district of Birmingham, Alabam*
blasting out windows and walls.

August 21. — Mrs. Alberta Beti-iel, mother of two children, was beaten «J|i|I
clubbed to the ground by Patrolman McCavera in Far Rochaway, Ntn .
Yor\. Mrs. Bethel was assaulted when she noticed McCavera, of the iootl
precinct, molesting Negro passers-by by ordering them to move on ailitk
poking women and men with his night stick when they hesitated. Mi
Bethel confronted McCavera and noted his badge number. Enraged, I*. |
began striking her with his night stick, knocked her to the sidewalk nimt ]
kicked her. Mrs. Bethel was arrested and held overnight.

September. — Physical examination of three Groveland, Florida youths, In l.i
on “rape” charges, revealed that the young men were beaten by police I# ]
make them “confess.” The youths, Samuel Shepherd, 22; Walter ) * •
Irvin, 22 and Charles Greenlee, 16, were examined by Drs. J. Dowiiii'i
and N. Spaulding. The doctors noted lash marks, broken teeth and that iKff I
foot of one of the )*)uths was cut with broken glass. The U.S. Supreme Coin*
on November 27, stated that the sentences (death and life imprisonment j I
would be reviewed by the court. After a white woman raised the cry of ]
rape, the whites of Groveland went on a lynch rampage and attacked 1!"
Negro section of the town. National Guard and Army troops were called out
One Negro was shot and killed.

September . — An unknown Negro bean picker was beaten near Henderson
ville, North Carolina by a group of white terrorists. The Negroes in tin

THE EVIDENCE n 3

vicinity were brought from Florida with promises of 50 and 60 cents per

limper If ton, to paid only 4 » cent, when w Se

vJburgh Courier received a letter from a woman picker who wrote,

1 Mr-isp nlease do something before they mob us all. .

Member 2— The U.S. District Court ruled that segregation in the dining

! of National Airport, Washington, D.C., where Mrs. Helen Nash was

refused service, does not conflict with Constitution, Interstate Commerce A

U^of'septZt^S.^howm Davis, an auto repair shop owner of Tusca-
loosa, Alabama was pistol-whipped by a gang of robed men. Davis was

nulled from his home by the gang. attacked

fuk of September 8,-Junior Charles of Roseland Louisiana, was attacked
l,y a gang of armed men who warned him to stop delivering milk, after he
I J night a new truck. Subsequently a-white man took over the business.

' .rb'oi September 8.— Fletcher Williams, 52, of W timer, Louisiana, had
ins home ^burned by terrorists after he protested to Federal authorities at
licing denied the right to vote. m

Member o.-David Montgomery, 17, and his cousin Paul Williams, were
(„ nen by a gang in Philadelphia. Williams is from Woodbury, New Jersey.
Ilnth youths S were severely beaten and suffered head and body ia >“ r ^„ FlVe
white suspects were later arrested and charged with assault and battery.
Member 9 -Mrs. May Hunt of Raleigh, North Carolina was attacked by
Lies Beal, Jr. of Gastonia, N. C. during the Debutante Ball at the Sir
Walter Hotel. Mrs. Hunt came to the rescue of her daughter Mildred who
was operating an elevator when Beal attempted to bring a chair onto it.
i he gfrl called her mother and Mrs. Hunt told her not to move the car until
Heal wok the chair off. He became angry and struck Mrs. Hunt, fracturing

her jaw. He was fined $50. t , . ,

Utobcr 31.— Charles Rivers was beaten insensible in front ot his home
Hj6 Dawson Street, Bronx, New York, by Patrolman John Smith in the
presence of ten eyewitnesses. Smith had accosted Rivers on the street,

«r arched him, and found a small knife, and proceeded to beat him, fractur-

^'vember^. Mrs. Constance Baker Motley, assistant special counsel for
the NAACP, accompanied by three delegates to the NAACP youth confer-
. in e was struck and physically evicted from the Four Acres Restaurant in
Dayton, Ohio by bartenders Robert Gallagher and Carl Latotus, when she
complained that her group had been refused service. W. W. Fox, a police-
man summoned to arrest the attackers, refused to make any arrests and in
profane language attacked a white member of the group for associating

\,wcmber S i.— Mrs. Lena Fausset of Jamaica, New York, was beaten by
policewoman Mary Shanley when she inadvertently bumped into the police-
woman on the street. Mrs. Fausset was beaten in the 103rd Precinct
\ „ , ’ember 4.— Police attempted to break up a torchlight parade being held for
. ouncilmanic candidate Benjamin Davis, on Lenox Avenue in New York
City. Several marchers were injured, six arrested. One of those hurt was
Negro newspaper reporter, Ted Poston, from N. Y. Post, struck by police-
man’s club. Another, Adrianne Bough of 168 Lenox Ave., was hit on the

mouth by a club. . . , . ,

November 9.— Beginning on November 9 and continuing for severa days,
mobs numbering up to 2,000 attacked Negroes and Jews in Chicago, Illinois.

GENOCIDE

“4

These incidents began when Aaron Bindman, an official of the Longslmi*
men and Warehousemen s Union invited Negro friends to his home '

mln\ f tCrr ° r ’ 3lded h J ‘d 6 Ch ' Cag0 P° lice > continued for a week. R|J
T * h ° me w a. s stoned. Roving mobs attacked Negroes in the street* M
he Southwest Side around 56th and Peoria Streets. Police refused to a r J
the mobsters. The mobs were both anti-Negro and anti-Jewish. *

IWfc** !) 9 n L ° UIS ci HO a T r , was beaten and cut b y Police Chief W. (
Brock and Deputy Sheriff Paul Jennings of Tampa, Florida. The ollim

whnb r H ng t0 | makC thC N u gr ° W ° man tel1 the wherea b°uts of her husiwml
who had an altercation with a railroad foreman. The officers were acqulii,

by a Federal jury of charges they violated the Negro woman’s rights q 1

of FlLla^fr beaten by Polife Chief Thomas I. (J,

of Flat (da, Alabama to make them confess a crime. Gantt was later miJ

J en , Ced . l ° two y. ears a nd a fine of I200 by Federal Judge C. B. Kennamc.'

Z K 4ZZ7t er I9, ~ FoUr y°, utbs > J° HN A - Leake 19, Harold Mum.
22, Wilbert Robinson, 19, and Dan Cardwell, 22, were brutally br.m

Hicko^v N C C tZ Z‘ N T h Car ° Una - The y ° Uths were re t ur ning fl

Hickory, N. C. when their bus was stopped by the mob.

?he^utht- 7 Sc A R l RAN r f LIN ’ °t Ba ^ rs fi eld ‘ California, an employer „|
the southern Pacific Railroad, was beaten in the local railroad station 'Hi*

policeman gave no reason for the beating other than he had seen FranltMH
dozing and asked him for his identification. " Frank '"'

CfOSSeS WCre bumed in oud y ing sec tions of Mobile, Alabam*
fo owed by announcement by Alabama Ku Klux Klan leader Willi,,,, '
Hugh Morns, that the crosses called for revival of the KKK 1

sSvt “ tr 26 A ar -°.'. d N r> ,? f ... 1

He was hel/in iaffn foT . P row lmg in a white neighborh I

L twenty hours 1 * Ve ^ Wlt ° U ‘ charges ’ althou g b the legal I,

’j’iiv “v° u,d «• 1

Seri*' his t* • r b 7“

ense witnesses. One witness was intimidated so as not to appear
, H ™ t** fa- w. home late ftfil

raseilss —i™.—

T 9 5 0

Negro church-goers attempting to attend services at St. Mary’s Catholic ChiiJj

THE EVIDENCE

”5

4i Viscataway, Maryland , were denied entrance, and told to use side doors
|iid sit in rear of church.

Donetta Bell, Negro instructor at Jackson College, Mississippi, was
llugled out of a group of white jaywalkers by police, slapped and jailed.
guilty. — Ed Robinson and his brother, Hilliard Robinson, of Montgomery,
ilubama were beaten and shot by four white men. They later sued for
I mo, ooo damages each. The men accused were Daniel and Curvin Davis,
1 1 rover Gardner and Alex Fannin, and were indicted for assault and intent
!♦> murder. The Robinsons were beaten with pistols and then shot.

|pm utry. — Ira Costen, North Carolina farmer living in Ohio, had been
dunged with “attempt to rape” in North Carolina. Two attempts to extra-
iliir him had failed. The Federal Grand Jury_ in North Carolina returned
in indictment stating that anyone who travels interstate “to, avoid prosecu-

or custody or confinement after conviction” has committed a felony.

I North Carolina has no law covering “attempt to rape.”) Office of Atty. Gen.
MiGrath suggested the federal authorities in Ohio invoke the Federal
•i Hi ite of removal proceedings, a law akin to the fugitive slave law. The
Indictment of the Federal Grand Jury of North Carolina was sent to tnc
|l S. Commissioner in the Cleveland District and hearing was to be held on
1 1 unary 28, 1950. Actually this was a move to dispossess Costen from his
(1*1111, where his white neighbors disapproved of his economic advancement.
NMw/y 12. — Anderson Lark was returning from the home of a friend when
!*•' was set upon by police in a San Francisco, California street and beaten,
kicked and robbed.

im uiity 25. — James Wilson was arrested in New Yor\ City in 1949 after
mi aping from a chain gang in South Carolina, where he had been placed
1 "i killing a man who had been molesting his wife. Despite public protests,

I 1 Gov. Hanley signed the extradition order to return Wilson to South
• imlina. The Civil Rights Congress had been fighting the extradition since
Wilson was arrested in 1949. Wilson was returned to South Carolina on
l-nmary 25, 1951.

toittry 26. — Robert Kirkendoll, 19-year-old Negro youth of Chicago, Illinois,
1. sentenced to seventy -five years in prison because he refused to pay a
Ivc dollar shakedown fee to police officers.

I'liiary 19. — Ed Walsh, noted artist of New Yor\, was set upon and beaten
I'V four white men while on his way to the Freedom Theater where he is
•» rnic designer.

••ill 7. — Irma Seuell, Negro artist in Greenwich Village, New Yor\ City,
I* id the street window of her shop smashed by hoodlums four times. Com-

I I hi tits to the police authorities produced no results.

] v\h 11. — Jessie Lee Goldman was flogged by a band of over twenty-five

1 ded men near Eastman, Georgia . Subsequently, Alfred Crumley, Theo

I rwis, and F. M. Smith were arrested, and charged with assault and battery.
Mir riff Ollie P. Peacock at first refused to act in the flogging and expressed
(*m of the Klan. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation entered the case
1 In re days after the flogging.

i'll 2. — Willie Anderson of Los Angeles was injured in an automobile
■ 'dent near Globe, Arizona . At the Gila County Hospital he was treated so
inhumanly that the wound became infected. A cast was put on his leg
• i an open wound. When it was cut off, the skin and flesh came off with
ilir cast.

GENOCIDE

April 6 .— Local officials in Roxboro, North Carolina tried to hush ii|>
beating of a Negro by a white policeman on St. Patrick’s Day. The Nw
wore the traditional green in observation of the Irish holiday and lid ■

attacked by the officer who said: “N s are not supposed to i i

white folks.”

April 13.— New $11,000 home of Dr. J. A. Boykin, Negro dentist of Birm
ham, Alabama, destroyed by three dynamite blasts. The property, low.
one block from Dr. Boykin’s previous home, had been officially rr/i"
tor Negroes the previous October, approved by the city commission «
zoning board, the property purchased from the city. The police m.uld <
arrests.

April 18.— Louis Alston was beaten by Brooklyn, New York police ft
charged with rape when -he was seen in the company of a white ]vS
Alston was' beaten so severely he was hospitalized in Kings County 11,. ,
for 4 days.

April 22.— In Birmingham, Alabama, the home of B. W. HbndbUmin
N egro contractor, was bombed. It was the second time the Hemln
home was bombed, and climaxed a series of bombings in the North SmH
he d District, into which Negroes had begun to move. Police made no ...n
pul 25. Cornelius Larkin, 27, of Los Angeles, California, mentally ,1
cient, was shot by police who were allegedly investigating an atttmiMi
burglary. Larkin was on his way home when police closed in on (1.
Excited, he ran and was shot.

Aprii 20.— Mrs. Maggie Peay, 24, a mother of Washington, D.C., was I,.
by Patrolman William N. Howell of the Ninth Precinct. Howell ..
slapped her baby boy, John Wesley. The officer came to her home I.k.Io
tor a man named ‘Keyes” and when Mrs. Peay protested his invasion <il 1
home he beat her. When the terrified baby grabbed him around the I.
he slapped him. Mrs. Howell suffered a possible fractured skull bin »
arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct.

Apul 26.— A 13-year-old Negro girl in Rome, Georgia, told how she had It*
raped by three white men as two white women looked on and lauiil,
while their babies toddled about them.

Ma l i '~ To ^ y J ack son was attacked by hoodlums in New York foil,,,,,
the May Day parade. He was severely beaten with sticks, and sustain,
blood clot on the brain, necessitating a transfusion.

Charles Turner of New Yor\ City, prominent propric,,,
Mom s restaurant was bea*n by officer Rufus Schatzberg and other „
identified police when she and a very fair-complected Negro man . ...
pamon Melvin Barker, were leaving her place of business after cloMti
time, Schatzberg was suspended.

May 5 - Mrs. Augusta LaMar oi Brooklyn, New York was beaten in .1
° m f °^ her r. fr , iend ’ ^ rs * Ernestine delaine when she suffered a nn\..
attack. Mrs. Delaine called police who came and, finding Mrs. LaMa. ■
unconscious, began ft) slap her face and neck. Mrs. LaMar became t<
scious and began struggling. The police proceeded to beat her back 11
unconsciousness.

May 25.— Sanders Chapron, 33, of Los Angeles, California, was beat.-.,
policemen and sustained a fractured jaw. Chapron charges he was dm,
his car when the officers accosted him with, “Hi, boy, pull over.” He sto,..,
and during the ensuing conversation one officer called him a “black n-

THE EVIDENCE 117

When he protested, they set upon him and later arrested him, booking him
i- i drunken driving and assault and battery.

L —A movement was begun in Gary , Indiana, to stop the extradition of
IIi rman Lawrence, a Negro youth, who came to Gary in June of 1950,
.Her escaping from a chain gang in Alabama. He got a job in Gary. Fol-
lowing a report to police of Gary that Lawrence was wanted for theft in
Alabama, he was arrested and jailed. Lawrence's counsel says that he is not
ty anted for theft, but that he is sought by a former employer in Alabama
Who did not want him to leave. The NAACP brought case to public
•Mention.

^ —Joseph Brown, 1 8-year-old Negro, upon returning to Miami, Florida,
hum a visit to Harlem, was arraigned before Criminal Court Judge Ben
Willard on a charge of stealing $6. “What would you rather do— that I
1 ill you ‘mister’ and give you five years or that I call you Joe and send you
home to Poppa?” Judge Willard asked. “Call me Joe,” the youth replied,
ii -i reported by the Associated Press .

2. — Andy Allen, 27, of Los Angeles, California, was beaten and arrested
hy Detective Potts Neal when he was stopped in his auto. Allen had a
picture of his sweetheart Muriel Nelson, a very fair-complected Negro, in
in , car. The officer asked him what he was doing with the photo, obviously
mistaking it for a white girl’s picture, and when Allen answered that
-.lie was his fiancee, he was beaten up.

2. — Leonard C. Johnson of San Luis Obispo, California, was beaten by
bos Angeles police after he demanded that they treat his wife with respect.
Che Johnsons were driving along when stopped, and Johnson was forced to
walk the chalk line” to test him for drunkenness. One policeman referred

10 Mrs. Johnson as “that gal.”

kwr ^ — A large fiery cross was burned during a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan
outside city limits of Jacksonville, Florida . A police escort was given the
parade through the city before the meeting.

W 6. — George Guillory, m, and his brother Frank, 18, of Opelousas,
Louisiana , were beaten severely while they looked for the draft board in
1 he St. Landry Parish Court House. They went to the vote registration office
liy mistake. Neither could speak English very well. The day before, six
Negroes who attempted to register to vote were pistol-whipped.

I uly 13. — Mrs. Alma Scoggins, 42-year-old domestic worker, was attacked

11 id intimidated by hoodlums because she refused to vacate an apartment on
ihc lower east side of New Yor\ City. The attack has been connected with
ihc attempt of Michael Zwerling to evict Mrs. Scroggins. She was subse-
ijuently evicted after the City Rent Commission and municipal and county
♦ ourts ruled she was a squatter, having acquired the apartment from a white
Iriend.

)une 24. — Willie Palmer was shot five times by J. C. Bradford in Jackson,
Mississippi at a Knox Glass Co. canteen. The white counterman shot the
Negro because he persisted in refusing to obey the segregated eating set-up
imposed by the company. Sheriff Troy Mashburn practically cleared Brad-
lord when he said the shooting was in self-defense, and released the white
man on $1,500 bail. Bradford told police he asked the Negro “in a nice way”
lo observe the Jim Crow rules and when he didn’t, pulled his gun and let
him have it.

1x8

GENOCIDE

August.- During August 1950, the police court of Richmond, Virginia in.,
gurated a new policy of requiring the segregation of Negro attorneys «
appeared before it. The court required that the Negro attorneys be\r,M
at a separate table from white attorneys. The table for the Negro atlorflJ
was placed on that side of the courtroom “set aside” for Negro defend*# ,
plaintifts and spectators. '

August. Muriel Rahn, concert singer, travelling on the Southern Railt
one month after a non-segregation order on trains was issued by Sumo.
Court, was denied service in dining car, and publicly insulted.

a.— J ohn EVA u S ’ f-y ear -° ld Ne g r ° worker, was beaten and kicked U
detectives- during the August and Peace demonstration in Union Squ»l*
New Yor{. Evans, a bystander, was knocked to the ground and police it.-
their feet on his head, twisted his arm, and tried to make him say ‘mi,,.
Evans was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct ^ “

August p.-A mob of over 400 hoodlums stoned a group of 15 bathe.. $

nmes Thf N ' IT™ 1 ^ in l Urcd b y kni ^> tire irons ||W

pipes The Negroes automobiles were smashed. One Negro, Eugene lot.

ind ch * rs ' d ” th ■ L: "- **•-*

hold a " d the ! r two cblldren . m oved into a formerly all-white neigl,U„

1 u A ( tCr rl0tlll g had continued for several hours, police arrived Hi id.
and botdes were thrown into houses, and electric wires cut by hoodlm,
Only 6 arrested, released in $25 bond.

August 19 Mrs. Marian W. Smith, nurse, was denied a job at U S V(M
erans Administration Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, because of toior Nl„
had been transferred from New York City by the government

A Z U t‘ 26 -~ J ° HN Mi ^ ar ’ ^-year-old Negro youth, a victim of cancer, w«,
beaten by police in Danbury, Connecticut. Millar had stopped at police ...
tion in Danbury to get traffic directions. He had just spent diirty-sfx d m It
New York Memorial Hospital. He was attacked by three polic^Tl!
allegedly being drunk. He said that his shuffling walk was due to a m ill
nant growth under his right shoulder. He was denied pa n relieving ,
cine by the police, and was held in jail for 18 hours before being Ssc.i !

Hit t?r a l for" ffiWedl MlIlar 7 aS ret u med t0 New York Mem onal Hosp.ul
ponecTfor jfweekT^ ** ^ “ d was

August 2j.- A Ku Klux Klan mob fired upon a Negro dance hall in Mynl.
Beach, South Carolina, but their fire was returned and James D Ini,,.
Char 3 P p 1Ceman weann g his uniform under KKK robes was killr.l

Sheriff E C F R Z sr ALD ^ Wea k hy J? egr0 ° W f r ° f the dance hall > had warn,. 1
f, C ' E ‘ Sasse * tha t the Klan intended to attack his place. FitzgcnS
was kidnapped by the mobsters that night and jailed but was later X

rhe Kl ge l a§ T St hlm d 5 °PP ed - Poli ce claimed the Negroes did,,',
kill the Kluxer but that one of his group had killed him.

/r/ 9 T EleVen , fiery crosses burned in the northwest section of Miami

ground." °“ l0Cat ‘° n KU ^ Kla " literature was “tew* Ium,,.

September n. -Alfonso S. Stanton, of Norfolk, Virginia, was assaulted I,,

THE EVIDENCE 119

pi il iceman W. N. Darden. Stanton sued Darden after Police Chief A. L.

I Vims cleared the officer.

)>!'(< rnber 10. — The FBI sought to return Curtis Hopkins, a Negro veteran,
in Mississippi, where he faces death on a rape frameup. Governor of Ohio

• 1 1 used in November, 1949 to extradite him. The FBI, acting at request
ol the State of Mississippi arrested Hopkins on September 15, 1950 for

I ‘'unlawful flight to avoid prosecution/’ The case is being handled by local

■Jimi National NAACP.

\t\ucmber 28. — Charles Sanders,. 18, farm hand of Greenville, Mississippi
‘v is jailed for one year with no charge against him. He was found in jail
by newly-elected Sheriff Thompson, who released him. Sanders had been
hi rested in connection with a slaying. Murray Ethridge, chief deputy under

• lie late Sheriff Foote told Thompson that “feeling was running high” at

• Ik- time of the killing of the white woman, and that Sanders was held for
Ins own good. County Attorney Mcllwaine said that each six months he
»•. given a list of prisoners held in the Washington County jail but he
w.is positive that Sanders’ name never appeared on any list in the past year.

Uiiober 30. — White students at University of Mississippi touched off a fiery
1 toss on the campus at Oxford, Mississippi. The cross was burned to
"protest” an editorial in the student newspaper, written by editor Harry
Krebs. The editorial urged admission of Negroes to “white” state colleges
in the South.

ihtober — Wesley Eugene Byrd was tortured by Hubert Beasley, former head

• •I the New Mexico State Police. The torture consisted of placing padlocks
around his testicles. A federal grand jury found Beasley and two other
nliicials guilty of torturing Byrd.

Ditnber 10. — The home of Sam Perry of Orlando, Florida, was burned
by eight night-riders. The home is near the Seminole-Orange County line.
IV Try, a fruit picker, recently bought the home.

II . « /( of October 20. — Verna May Floyd, 22, of Roc^y Mount, North Carolina,

1 barged that Howard C. Carson criminally assaulted her at pistol point at a
morning house where she was employed.

\htobcr 21. — Acle Locus, an aged farmer of Wilson, Noi'th Carolina, was
braten and robbed of $27,000 by two white armed men who invaded his
I arm. Locus, who kept his morj^y in a safe, declared the bandits bound
and gagged him, and then hacked open his safe with an axe.

of October 20. — Bishop E. B. Pulliam, of New Yoi'\ City, pastor of
Si. Mary’s International Temple of Truth, charged that he was refused
medical aid for severe face burns at the Knickerbocker Hospital. Bishop
Pulliam declared he had to wait for half an hour, and then was forced to
.rck private treatment for his second degree burns sustained when a flame-
lillcd chimney exploded in his face.

Wrrf^ of November 3. — John Davis, a chauffeur, was shot in Arcadia Parish,
Louisiana by a white cafe owner. Davis was driving for Henry Kest of
New York, and was refused service by Ellis Cohart, the cafe man. When
I )avis protested, Cohart shot him, according to Sheriff W. V. Lacarde.
(’chart was placed under bond, but no charges were filed.

November 21. — The home of Dr. Percy L. Julian of Chicago, Illinois, noted
ientist and director of research at the Glidden Company, was attacked by
hoodlums who tried to burn it. Dr. Julian’s home is in an area that racists
have tried to keep lily-white by restrictive covenants, etc.

120

GENOCIDE

December y—A mob of 14 white men tried to lynch Clayton Moore Jin
textde miO janitor of Greenwood, South Carloina. He was saved when
son, Clayton, Jr shot and killed one of the would-be lynchers GeorJ 1 1

, e , rgU ^° n ■Abbeville, South Carolina. He was charged with murder 9
elder Moore was severely beaten. ' n

D bvmo SaDda r ldl r’ Pv V° E Ben Wright > was severel y ton

He Tad 777 77 ^"' P ohcemen while he was in their cumJ

He had to be hospitalized in Fort Jackson Station Hospital. The ,,11,.
were Police Chief Corley and Officer Long.

1951

/a mZ y i7wT' f EVERGRREN Feowers was beaten by a mob of some fifty K)„
men in WJiiteville, North Carohna. She was beaten in the presence of I,
to-year-oU daughter. She was dragged from her home, afer her hust,,!

f Thf clhid Is wTf ther v He T s r hot at several times b y the raitl '»*
lanuary.— ihe Child Welfare Council of America cancelled the nmn.w

£ S rd r Ba&« Ho^TL^^ for Baltimore, Maryland, when ,1,'

break fast guests. *** Negr ° dde S ates as —nigh.

W ZL 0l J anmry r i\A° BERT HaLE ’ 4 2 , of Philadelphia was beaten by Pain
men Bergen and Mahoney, who assaulted him in his home after ,!

HnI™ /i e ! edly t0 Sett j e an ar g ument between Hale and his wife k
Wee\ of February 4 -Arthur Cowan and Jesse Arnold of Douglas Conn, I
Georgia were severely flogged and Cowan was shot with bufkshot l.y
group of five terrorists. During the beating Cowan managed m escape III!

Arnold 1 " the ! ark 3fter hkting ° ne > and as he fl ed was fhot in h !,
Arnold was beaten unconscious.

F w7V- _A ™,7 Frederick Cu RTis was slapped by Detective (l,,i

Sled S ‘Z° n CuT:° n ’ ■ Ge T gla ’ , When the Negr ° law y er protested l„ „„

slanned He fr £d f “ the P ° hce f ation with a client when he w" l
wa? refused S “ W3rram “ tHe Bibb Count y Court House, ,„

H r?”„ "„T;t ™ „' f n srx " on “”' s Day - (=i;;

AffLlrt r of t' N r

»ck. (Dr. At^t a ft“rd B l F Sr; Ch W “ “” d " *

THE EVIDENCE

X2I

16. — Ferdinand C. Smith, the first Negro ever to become a top
leader of a major American trade union, was deported as a part of the

[ witch hunt spurred on by the Smith and McCarran Acts. Mr, Smith, a
liritish subject, had lived in this country many years. (Mr. Smith is a signer
of this petition.)

Special cases of soldiers being brutalized, given unjust prison sen-
tences, etc., while in service. Some in Korean conflict, but most in
World War II while on overseas duty.

1944

/ ebruary 7. — In Nashville, Tennessee, Purdie S. Jackson, Negro soldier, was
mnvicted by general court martial and sentenced to dishonorable discharge
and confinement for twelve years for “assaulting three white civilians with
1 riminal intent.” The charges grew out of an altercation which occurred in
a drug store owned by one of the civilians, because the Negro soldier sat in
.1 section reserved for the exclusive use of white patrons. Jackson acted in
vlf-defense; the whites were the aggressors. The NAACP filed petition for
clemency on October 23, 1945.

November 21. — Zack C. Taylor, Negro serviceman was sentenced to 20 years
when found guilty of a violation of the 61st and 93rd Articles of War by a
court-martial sitting in France. In December 1946, the NAACP obtained
reduction of sentence to 9 years. It was pointed out that the prosecution
failed to sustain its burden of proof and that the identification of the de-
fendant as the attacker had not been clearly established.

19 4 5

lanuary 30-31. — Alfred Hayes, Private 'of Headquarters Service Company,
298th Air Base Security Battalion was charged with violation of the 93rd
Article of War — “assault with intent to commit the crime of rape.” He
was found guilty by general court-martial and sentenced to be dishonorably
discharged and to be confined at hard labor for twenty years. Prosecution
failed to establish the intent necessary for conviction of the crime for which
I Iayes was tried and convicted. Also, Hayes was never identified as the
attacker beyond the reasonable doubt required by law.

Ipril. — The death sentence was given to Negro serviceman Luster Wright,
from Cleveland, Ohio, charged with allegedly having attacked two Ger-
man women. It was later changed to thirty years imprisonment, then to
eighteen years.

lime 25. — Willie Wilson was tried by general court-martial for the alleged
premeditated killing of a fellow soldier, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In June 1946 the sentence was reduced to twelve years after an NAACP
petition. The petition pointed out that it was “apparent from the cumula-
tive testimony of the witnesses to the killing that there was no malice afore-
thought or premeditated intent on the part of Wilson to shoot or kill the
deceased.”

lugust 21. — From a statement issued shortly after VJ Day by the NAACP:
“Colored Americans cannot forget that while millions of servicemen and
their families are looking forward to release from uniform, our men, for

122

GENOCIDE

the most part, are being held in the services, either by unfair rules or l» I
arbitrary administration of the rules.” The statement f V , I

great bulk of Negro soldiers was blocked “from the very beginning” bv lit
point system “which put a premium on combaT servi e ” Everybody J|

r , to rtmam in unif °™ ^ Shir

tourth oi the length of service are discharged.” ^

f mtrti a rin 5 'tf^ A ^c S fi Y0 Th C ’ Arm J P riV3te ’ was conv >cted by an Army comp I
martial in the Pacific Theater of Operations for alleged raoe of /.I,

Filipino woman, and sentenced to life at hard labnf W P * ? "

D Sley that"" he Tn T* * ^ ^ Negr ° Veterans * General 0.n „

December D GrifB? ^ SCparate , wards ^ NegroJ

™“ the Croatan h.d „o Jim C,Z ZSZ ci oTffil tSTlTfl

19 4 6

^NAACpT IS J Meen ;fmy m camp^’h eC f etar H y °K afIairs for »"

ignoring War Department memn P ’a 6 kt t ^ at more than half werr

Kbits segregation OnrAbe^r e n r pr m r 97 \ whkh Really pro
!*- bilUf heaSt

S' fif ‘a” -. F V rfSTjte

soldiers about to be sent overseas wfreTlaceH i 1 j' ennin S> Ne K r "

from going AWOL hut- . P ace< ^ 111 a st °ckade to keep them

Complete igrSn L"fo S „ n d 7 ?“ T , »“" d ' d £lto
Johnston, Fla ” . P and Cam P Gordon,

mms ^ * E “°i»

martial for allegedly ^havinj? stahhprl * ta ! 1 P n ’ was tned by general court

established beyond easonable doth,- ^ * serviceman. Guilt was no,

May. — Private Lemas Woods of Detroit * ,

accidental ahooting o f , Jelll^K St' 'SJSE?^# £*J

THE EVIDENCE

123

May of execution was granted by Secretary of War Patterson. Woods had
vvntten his family in Detroit that he was forced into a “confession” by
Imital beatings by the military CID. In November, 1946, after an Army
K< view Board had granted Woods a new trial, he was brought from the
Philippines to San Francisco. There he -was held in solitary confinement.
\n order signed by the provost marshal of the prison where Woods was
lirld in San Francisco, required that he be kept in solitary except for meals
uiui exercise, when he was to be handcuffed to a guard. The guards were
Ini hidden to speak to him and he was to be checked every fifteen minutes.
Woods’ attorney charged that these prison orders “reflect a spirit of perse-
cution.”

|*V. — Members of the 1940th Engineer Aviation Utilities Company, sta-
tioned in Japan, were attacked by white troops on their way into the

• 11 y of Tokorozawa. When the Negro non-commissioned officers of the
company went to investigate the unprovoked attacks, they were beaten up
in turn. When one of the men was taken to the hospital with seventeen
■inches in his leg and bad cuts from a knife thrown at him, the Negroes
decided to arm in self-defense. As a result, they were court-martialled and
die whole company put under area restriction for two weeks.

n/y Fear of future beatings if he testified to brutalities practiced against
Negro soldier prisoners at Litchfield, England, led Simon Blocker to refuse
10 give any further testimony at the trial of the former Litchfield Com-
mander. The court excused him.

nly 28. — Seven Negro soldiers were sentenced to death in Mannheim , Ger-
many , after having been found guilty of “mutiny and sedition” by a court
martial. The seven — Daniel Jones, Curney C. Winstead, James Shered, Jr.,
Swell W. Smith, Walter D. Hick, James Webb and Samuel H. Sewell—
laid gone on an excursion, with permission. On their way back they met a

• a plain noted for his hatred of Negroes. The captain started action against
I hem. The men had no witnesses, since all the witnesses had been transferred
I mm the area by the same captain.

in gust 5. — Walter A. Brown was sentenced to fifteen years hard labor by
general court-martial for shooting a white officer at the front “with intent to
lull.” The shooting incident occurred in a town on the front line at night
when Brown was leaving a bam and was fired upon by an unknown
assailant. Uncertain whether the fire, seemingly directed at him, was coming
I mm an enemy or one of his own men, Brown shouted: “I am an American
mldier,” before returning fire in the general direction from which the
Hashes of gunfire continued to come. Injured by one of the shots, Brown
collapsed, to discover upon regaining consciousness that he was being placed
under arrest, charged with the crime of shooting an officer.

I ft gust 9. — At MacDill Field , Florida, Samuel H. Chance, Negro service-
man was found guilty of desertion by general court-martial and sentenced
id dishonorable discharge and confinement at hard labor for five years. It was
lound that although absent from service for over a year, Chance had been
a victim of amnesia and was not responsible for failing to return to his
■icrvice unit. He last remembered having been in Philadelphia, Pa., in May
1944, and could recall no events between that time and May 1945 when he
lound himself in Bellevue Hospital in New York. The hospital wired the
court-martial board to the effect that the serviceman had come to them in

122

GENOCIDE

the most part, are being held in the services, either bv unfair rules or k I

^rea^b ry ik adl f 1 M Stratl0 u 0f ^ rules ” The statem ent said further that ill
great bulk of Negro soldiers was blocked “from the verv betrinnincr” K„ 9
point system “which put a premium on l2J

fourth of the length of serviS* V*dkcht™d ^ WlUtC tr °° PS WUh ' m '
°S£ that"" he Tnd™ “ ^ ^ N P° Veterans t0 General ol,

sss^^ “s ii

December iS^-Capta^Chades ^ Sep f rate wards for Negroe*

since the Croatan had no Vm go w "T'Hi

t0 have ^5^4

1946

/a NAAC p 7 HskTd J fift«?'amy m camnl r \ SeC f etar I °£ veterans ’ for the

ignoring War Department memo P j 6 vr tbat more c han half wnr

hibits segregation S AbeXn r pr n 97 ’™ hkh Really pro

^Wris “rr?

He said, in part: “Fort Bragg N* r and pL r d " on J anuar y ?>
t0 ., havea Policy of ‘compfete segregatio?’ At en Fo n rf n*" ; Were x f ° u,ul

soldiers about to be sent overseas were S nlari!i • , ® ennmg ’ N <*"’

from going AWOL hnt- . P ace< ^ ln a st °ckade to keep them

Complete Lregat^ L f oun d tT™ ?f accorded white ^ldiea
Johnston, Fla ? 7 “ d Camp Gordo ".

^Cw^Mn^Q^^h^nglneer^viaticm^B^tt^” ° VerSeaS dUty in Europe "4

martial for allegedly having stabbed a W3S tned by general court

established beyond reasonable dnnhi- A t * C serviceman - Guilt was nol

™ »» sufficiently U»

May, Private Lemas Woods of Detroit Mirk
accidental shooting of a fellow, olto in die ££

THE EVIDENCE

123

•t.iy of execution was granted by Secretary of War Patterson. Woods had
wiitten his family in Detroit that he was forced into a “confession” by
I'niial beatings by the military CID. In November, 1946, after an Army
Review Board had granted Woods a new trial, he was brought from the
Philippines to San Francisco. There he «was held in solitary confinement.
An order signed by the provost marshal of the prison where Woods was
held in San Francisco, required that he be kept in solitary except for meals
iliul exercise, when he was to be handcuffed to a guard. The guards were
l* *1 hidden to speak to him and he was to be checked every fifteen minutes.
Woods’ attorney charged that these prison orders “reflect a spirit of perse-
1 ill ion.”

W.»v — Members of the 1940th Engineer Aviation Utilities Company, sta-
tioned in Japan, were attacked by white troops on their way into the

• ii y of Tokorozawa. When the Negro non-commissioned officers of the
Company went to investigate the unprovoked attacks, they were beaten up
In turn. When one of the men was taken to the hospital with seventeen
it itches in his leg and bad cuts from a knife thrown at him, the Negroes

• In ided to arm in self-defense. As a result, they were court-martialled and
the whole company put under area restriction for two weeks.

jkly 3.—- Fear of future beatings if he testified to brutalities practiced against
Negro soldier prisoners at Litchfield, England, led Simon Blocker to refuse
to give any further testimony at the trial of the former Litchfield Com-
mander. The court excused him.

fuly 28. — Seven Negro soldiers were sentenced to death in Mannheim, Ger-
many, after having been found guilty of “mutiny and sedition” by a court
martial. The seven — Daniel Jones, Curney C. Winstead, James Shered, Jr.,
Swell W. Smith, Walter D. Hick, James Webb and Samuel H. Sewell—
had gone on an excursion, with permission. On their way back they met a
1 a plain noted for his hatred of Negroes. The captain started action against
them. The men had no witnesses, since all the witnesses had been transferred
from the area by the same captain.

hitfust 5. — Walter A. Brown was sentenced to fifteen years hard labor by
uctieral court-martial for shooting a white officer at the front “with intent to
lull.” The shooting incident occurred in a town on the front line at night
when Brown was leaving a barn and was fired upon by an unknown
assailant. Uncertain whether the fire, seemingly directed at him, was coming
I mm an enemy or one of his own men, Brown shouted: “I am an American
soldier,” before returning fire in the general direction from which the
Hashes of gunfire continued to come. Injured by one of the shots, Brown
Collapsed, to discover upon regaining consciousness that he was being placed
under arrest, charged with the crime of shooting an officer.

iugust 9. — At MacDill Field, Florida, Samuel H. Chance, Negro service-
man was found guilty of desertion by general court-martial and sentenced
l<> dishonorable discharge and confinement at hard labor for five years. It was
lound that although absent from service for over a year, Chance had been
1 victim of amnesia and was not responsible for failing to return to his
service unit. He last remembered having been in Philadelphia, Pa., in May
1944, and could recall no events between that time and May 1945 when he
lound himself in Bellevue Hospital in New York. The hospital wired the
< ourt-martial board to the effect that the serviceman had come to them in

I2 4 GENOCIDE

a dazed and stunned condition and that his case had been diagnosed I
amnesia. 6 ]

October. A death sentence for alleged rape of a German woman hand*'
down to Robert H. Johnson, Mississippi GI, was commuted to life imprli
ment by General Eisenhower even before the case was formally review*!
lhe commutation followed intervention by friends. There was no idenllt
cation of Johnson by any witnesses, including the complainant, and witn, .
who were ready to testify that Johnson was in his barracks at the tim (5
the alleged rape, were never called.

December 7 .~ The American Council on Race Relations sharply condemn*,
those sections of the report on conditions in the U.S. Occupation zona W
Germany, made by George Meader. Meader is chief counsel for the Surd.

Investigating Committee dealing with “alleged misconduct of Negro

in Europe. The Council said: “The manner in which the Meader irni!-
discusses attitudes towards minority servicemen in the countries in wl.M
they are stationed is a slur against all minority groups in America.” il.
Council also pointed out that the Meader report was presented to |[
American public by the wire news services in such a way as to plav m
slander against Negro troops. “ ' ^

1947

January 27.— In Ko\ura, Japan, Eugene H. Hord was tried by general
martial, charged with having committed armed assault upon another soldi*,
and a Japanese civilian. He was sentenced to 10 years at hard labor
On the night of November 4, 1946, Hord was visiting a cabaret I*

Japan, in company with a number of other American servicemen mu

Japanese civilians. While he was sitting at a table, without any warning
provocation, a soldier struck him across the face with a beer botde will
such force as to cause the bottle to shatter into many pieces. Hord is alleun
to have drawn a weapon and shot the soldier, Barnes, in the leg il
dentally striking the Japanese civilian. Hord was known to his comnruJ

'sofdier " ^ S qU,Ct ’ ambiti0us ’ a wiI1 ' n 8 worker and an effifi

1948

—Albert W. Nolen was given a dishonorable discharge from the army an.
sentenced to hard labor for five years for refusing to obey the allegedly la*,
ful command of a superior officer to prepare his equipment and go -a
bivouac Nolen was suffering from a chronic stomach disorder and w«

to an Ca NAA n rP ‘° "T 'Vo' SerVed the five Accopl, n,

anneal inp. the V ^ September 9, 1948, that- organization wi
/ g the case, asking for a change to an honorable discharge.

September 23.— The NAACP obtained reduction of life sentences imposed «
wo Negro ex-servicemen for alleged rape of German women while sen,
in the army of occupation. Robert Paine was convicted by general conn
martial on June 5, 1944; his sentence reduced to 18 years. David Evans w#
convicted on December 6, 1945; his sentence was reduced toT y
imprisonment.

THE EVIDENCE

125

1949

hi <11 ch. — In Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Ben Spear was convicted by general
1 mirt-martial on a charge of rape and sentenced to life imprisonment. Later,
.nitence was reduced to 15 years at hard labor.

1950

\uly December. — Lieutenant Leon Gilbert and sixty other Negro officers and
rnlisted men of the 24th Infantry Regiment serving in the Korean war
were sentenced to death (Gilbert) or to harsh sentences ranging from five
years to life. These cases were investigated by Thurgood Marshall, counsel
I «»r the NAACP who reported “the question as to why so many Negroes
were charged with misbehavior before the enemy and so few white soldiers
| were charged, remains unanswered.”

Of the sixty, fifteen got life, one got fifty years, two got twenty-five years,
three got twenty years, one got fifteen years, seven got ten years, two got
live years.

Only eight white soldiers were accused of violating the 75th Article of
War, four were acquitted, one got five years, one got three years, two had
1 heir charges withdrawn.

November 4 — In the Afro-American, James L. Hicks reported from Tokyo
1 hat he had seen on a train in Japan, 11 members of the 24th Infantry who
had been convicted by general court-martial of “misconduct before the ene-
my,” and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Mr. Hicks was not
permitted to talk to the men, who were under heavy guard.

November 11. — In the Pittsburgh Courier, Frank Whisonant, reporting from
Taejon, Korea, said that “ninety-nine and nine-tenths of the men tried”
before court-martial boards were Negro troops from the 24th Infantry. One
man, he said, had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment after
.1 three-hour trial. He observed “two long lines of Negroes going through
lhe two military courts of ‘justice’ set up in Taejon.” Subsequently, the
24th Infantry, an all-Negro regiment, was disbanded, the action being repre-
nited as a blow against jim crow. However, since segregation continued
elsewhere in the Army, many thought it merely a disciplinary move.

ARTICLE II (c). DELIBERATELY INFLICTING ON THE
GROUP CONDITIONS OF LIFE CALCULATED TO BRING
ABOUT ITS PHYSICAL DESTRUCTION IN WHOLE OR
IN PART

By a conscious deliberate policy, expressed in law, economic policy and
■ ourt decisions, of forcing Negroes to live in filthy ghettos, of preventing
ilu ir access to available medical treatment, and of holding down their
income through discrimination in employment to the lowest paid jobs
hi the country, more than 30,000 Negroes die each year in the United
Mates who would not have died if they had been white. In addition
1 hr Negro people are robbed of more than eight years of life on the
.iverage. According to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the
hlc expectancy of a white male in 1945 was 64.44 years while that of a

126

GENOCIDE

Negro male was 56.06. A white female in the same year had a |d
expectancy of 69.54 while a Negro woman had a life expectancy f
59-62 Thus by “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of III*
calculated to bring about its destruction in whole or in part,” every m.,1
United States Negro suffers on an average the destruction of 8.38 yean 4
precious life while every United States Negro woman is robbed of .j
years of living.

The number of United States Negroes killed each year by legal and
extra-legal lynching is relatively small in comparison with the nuftS
wiped out by the imposition of genocidal living conditions. On the basis of
reports issued by the National Office of Vital Statistics, an official agent »
of the U.S Government, it appears that the Negro death rate as of 1 J
(t e latest figures available) was 1,127.5 out of every 100,000 Negroes 111
the population. In contrast, the white death rate was but 97s- 1
Had there been no racial differential in death rates, 31,839 United St.,-
Negroes who did die in 1948 would have lived.

Consider the full implications of that fact. Approximately 32,,,,,,
mted States Negroes are killed each year through the imposition of
tenor living and health conditions. This adds up to the snuffing out „(
almost 200,000 lives by this means alone since the United States signed il,.
United Nations Charter.

When the figures reported by the Office of Vital Statistics are broke
down and compared, many shocking facts emerge to show how <|j,
criminatory treatment results in genocidal disease and death
Even before Negroes are born in the United States, genocidal facto,,
begin with conception. The death rate resulting from premature bit. I,
among non wffims is twice as high as the white rate. Again according 0,
the Office of Vital Statistics, the figure for 1948 was 29.4 for non-whiir,
and only 14.9 for whites. The number of non-white infants who dir,!
from premature birth in that year was 4,628. Had there been no gen,,
cidal racism in America, had the rates been the same, one-half of those
deaths 2,314 of them — would not have occured.

Once born, many Negroes do not survive their first year of life in t!„
United States. Because of the conditions under which they are forced r„
live, three Negro children die to each two white children during thru
first year, considering their proportion in the population. The death rate
tor this period, still according to the same official U.S. agency for 104, S '
were 46.5 out of every 1,000 non-white babies born alive, as compared to
29.9 white babies. In other words, 7,808 non-white children under one
year of age were killed that year by a genocidal death rate created by
genocidal living conditions.

The same conditions which take such heavy toll of non-white infants
around the natal, period also take shocking toll of Negro mothers. The

THE EVIDENCE 127

Hfli, ul figures show that during 1948 three out of every 1000 non-white

hers giving live birth died, as compared to less than one white mother.

Iliit c the total number of non-white mothers to die from diseases of
Hi'gnancy that year was 1,369, it may be said that 959 of them were
killed by the genocidal conditions under which they were forced to bear
(llilldren.

1 1 should be noted that, according to the Office of Vital Statistics,
Buccly half of the non-white mothers giving live birth in 1948 were
.UK mled by a physician in a hospital, as compared to 90 percent of the
while mothers who enjoyed such safeguards. Twenty-six out of every 100
in mi white mothers had to depend upon mid wives, as compared to only
Min out of every hundred white mothers. Conditions were worst in rural
in. is, where 46 out of every 100 non-white mothers were attended by
inn I wives, and only 24 out of every iqo were served by physicians in
nnupitals.

( )nce embarked upon life in the United States, non-whites are far more
i|.i to fall victim of some fatal disease before reaching maturity than
,h < whites. During the first 24 years of life, non-whites have a death
t in that is two to three times higher than that of whites, and between the
.911 s of 25 to 29 the non-white rate is four times higher.

< rrtain diseases are specific in reducing the non-white population.

I In- toll of non-white lives taken by tuberculosis in 1949 has been officially
• .lunated at 11,349. The death rate resulting from this disease that year
w, is 72 of every 100,000 non-whites, as compared to 21 whites. In this
Instance, jimerow conditions giving rise to a jimerow death rate, cost
11,039 non-white lives.

Pneumonia and influenza are the next most efficient killers of non-
w lutes. With a death rate of 53.4 per 100,000 for non-whites in 1949 as
Mimpared to 23.8 for whites, the number of deaths attributable to the
1 1. ial differential came to 3,800.

’The ailments of nephritis and nephrosis were likewise costly, the
1 iic for non-whites being 36.9 per 100,000, as compared to 17.4 for
whites. Here the differential cost 3,135 non-white lives.

Syphilis is another killer. With a non-white fatality rate of 53.4 as
minpared to the white rate of 23.8, the race differential cost 2,078 non-
white lives.

Such disorders as gastritis, enteritis, and colitis (not counting diarrhea
..! the newborn) gave rise to a death rate of 13.5 among non-whites,
tin compared to a white rate of 6.3. This translates into an annual total of
1 1 40 victims of the race differential.

Conditions of work as well as of living enter the picture in connection
With fatal accidents (other than those caused by automobiles). It is a
notorious fact that white employers commonly assign Negro employees

128

GENOCIDE

to the most dangerous tasks, which are generally referred to as “n •
work.” This was one reason why the accident death rate for 1949 wi*
44.9 among non-whites as compared to 37.9 among whites — the rw
differential costing 1,562 lives.

After listing some 25 broad categories of death-dealing diseases, tht
Office of Vital Statistics reports that the death rate resulting from "ill
other” diseases in 1949 was 143. 1 for non-whites, as compared to 79
for whites. This miscellaneous item reflected the death of 10,070 non
whites whose real cause of death was genocidal jimcrowism.

Insurance companies, which tend to reflect the realities of life, hav
fully recognized the peculiar hazards incumbent upon being non-whll*
in the United States. In their group insurance plans, there is no pi in*
facie discrimination on grounds of race, but industries which empk
considerable numbers of Negroes are placed in categories charged hig|n
premiums. Some industrial insurance policies, covering plants employ
ing mostly whites but some Negroes, do not discriminate against (!•
Negroes per se, but merely exclude employees in certain job categories
which jobs Negroes “just happen” to occupy.

A factor in this high death rate is the refusal — universal throughiuii
the southern states and prevalent among the great majority of priv.11*
and semi-private hospitals elsewhere throughout the United States - Id
admit Negro patients and/or Negro physicians. With approximately twn
thirds of the Negroes in the United States residing in the southern stni.
this racial discrimination necessitates that the bulk of Negro mothcrl
give birth in the over-crowded Negro wards of inferior public hospitall
(if such exist in their county), or rely upon the services of a primitive
midwife in the home.

As a result of the refusal of many medical colleges in the Unit*.)
States to admit Negro students, and the refusal of the southern states ■
provide medical training at their state institutions for Negroes, there 0
but one Negro doctor to serve every 4,409 Negroes in the population
This compares with one white doctor to serve every 843 white person*
in the population. On the national level this means that whites are liv.
times better off in this respect than are Negroes. But in the South, whm
most Negroes live, the ratio is much worse. In Mississippi, for example,
the proportion of white doctors to the white population is 22 times great o
than the proportion gf Negro doctors to the Negro population.

Sickness which incapacitates for a minimum of one week is 40 percent
more common to the Negro than to the white, according to offi(ul
Government figures.

Health is a result of income and other living conditions. Amoity
non-farm families, 73 per cent of Negro families in the South receivi*
less than $2,000 a year, while more than 20 per cent of Negro non-farm

THE EVIDENCE

129

ImiiUes in the South receive less than $500 a year. Farm families are.

iven more desperately harried for .he most bas “' ‘ ' '

(>,„ 40 per cen. of Negro farm families receive less than feoo year,

ICcording to the latest available government figures. Tinted

More dial, half of the Negro wage earners .n^Um.ed

s, „es are engaged in the two lowest paid and least protected ot
unations Ovfr one million are domestic service workers and almost
upations. agricultural workers. Many others obviously

into Indus.., es. Hence .he median income

* r A' rbe U S Bureau of the Census, was almost twice

:: ‘liT ton-farm white families as i, was for non-farm Negro
1 „Tes White families received a median annual income of $2,74..
Nc,ro families received a median annual family income of only $1,562.
This is^ess than half of what the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics con-

*• * notorious breeder of

disease and death, and an instrument of genocide when
I well as consciously fostered economic policies, make it impossible tor
I people to leave such housing. “Most Negroes have been unable to re

, , nf an d sanitary houses in which to live and bring up

2 “ S.; observed the government publication Public Housing

“h themed” States the latest available government statistics report
ilnt there are 3,293,406 dwelling units for Negroes. Of these over one
ir ( “reeded major repairs” and almost two million had

Ov"s°ma„ P y Negro homes as white fe.r per

ten. against .6.3) needed major repairs and — “““ “ ^ ite
Negro homes as white had no running water. » s *

s“^fe o n£

u "' 2 rt"tmS e th» of *red Sums

IS where aoning laws and restrictive covenants (as well as violence)

40 —on dwelling units in the

United States are ^^oft*^ 5

iheir^ownera of the U.S. have refused to «

aside Included among these restricted units are 90 F«' ““

WuSng erected in the United States since the end of World Wa, If, a

‘'Tfa“much P °ou°ed SdsionTn^Ttho United States Supreme Co urt
apparently ruled that the courts would no longer enforce such covenants

I 3 0 GENOCIDE

But the truth, as the Atlanta Constitution saw it, was that the Suprcifl|| 1
Court “backed into a decision that segregation of races in housing m|J
be accomplished by voluntary agreement and such agreements may tw| I
be set aside by law.” More recently the Supreme Court held that rcstrb
tive covenants may be enforced by civil suit for damages against any o|i I
violating the provisions of the covenant.

A nationwide survey conducted by the United Press in 1949 found 110
breakdown in existing covenants and no decrease in the number ol I
covenants being entered into. In addition, the United Press fou ml
covenants were being effectively enforced by banks and loan companies
most of which refused to finance the purchase or repair of a home tliAl
is racially “out of bounds.”

Even the American penal system plays its part in “deliberately inflicting
on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part.” Thus, of the 131 prisoners who suffcml
the death penalty in the United States in 1946, 46 were white while H4
were Negro, although the Negro people constitute only ten per cent nf
the population of the United States. Twenty-one Negroes were executed
for “rape” in 1946, while no whites were executed for that offense. The
framing of Negroes, the constant arrest and conviction of innocent
Negroes on false charges, is reflected in prison statistics between UJ41
and 1945. Thirty per cent of the American prison population for thcnl
years were Negroes, or three times more than their proportion in tin
population. 2

The special police persecution reserved for the Negro is shown in
prison statistics for the year 1945, which include all American prisoner!
with the exception of those in Michigan, Georgia and Mississippi. Thcro
were 737 Negro prisoners convicted for murder, representing but )•>
percent of the population, and 529 white prisoners convicted for murdci,
representing almost 90 percent of the population. There were 555 Ne^-
prisoners serving sentences for manslaughter, and only 423 white prison *
ers convicted for the same offense. Negroes convicted for aggravated
assault totaled 1,265, while white totaled 1,099.

Denial of education as a matter of public policy contributes to genu
cide by forcing Negroes into dangerous industries and poorly paid work ,
by systematically reducing their income and depriving them of decent
housing, medical care, food and clothing.

The laws of 17 American states and the District of Columbia provide
for separate public elementary schools and separate high schools for

2) Source: United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Cited in
1949 Negro Handbook, edited by Florence Murray.

THE EVIDENCE 131

Negro schools offer grossly inferior facilities compared with

L,L Office of Education is o.er fi.e times as much as for each Ne 0 .

'"white teachers’ salaries are 44 •*“>“ ““ h " S>

"f Itc pupil-teacher ratio in Negro schools is 20.7 percent more than in

Kt fcac, rate among the Negro people is >‘V^S'V.at«
, 1,1 among the whites, according to the figures of the United States

Mtireau of the Census for October, 1947. ,

I ">e tragedy behind Seri ApXker

mmmmm

I if n of the southern states .

“This inequality of opportunity exists not only in elementary e uc •
I iS£ c^al dear ^ mXn'schoo'

r rn l ha H been forced to complete no more than 4 years ot roim
,,£ I94 °’ h3d , - t h T2 D ercent of the white population. Th

SfS

f„r Negroes in those states maintaining separate schools

A former governor of South Carolina, and a member of the Sena
„f the United States for many yem, Mr. Cob making
liis fellow white supremacists, once said, God m

3 ) Petition to the United Nations by National Negro Congress.

*32 GENOCIDE

be your servant. He was meant to be your hewer of wood and dra»>
of water.” 4

This is a little wide of the mark-but it is the rationale for segreg.m,
oppression and genocide. The Negro is oppressed in the United Siai.
not because of God but because of monopoly capital. His oppression
the foundation of the political and economic control of the null

American people by a reactionary clique. His low pay, bad hoi

ill-health, and lack of education result in the deliberate physical dcflrn
tion of the Negro people. But they also result, as we shall show. Ii.
billions of dollars of annual profit to American monopoly. Profits n<

the spurious rationale of “race” and “God,” are the reasons for “del

ately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring aUi.
its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

ARTICLE III (b). CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT GENOCIDE

The prime mover of the mammoth and deliberate conspiracy to comm
genocide against the Negro people in the United States is mono,,. I
capital. Monopoly’s immediate interest in pearly four billions of dollar In
superprofits that it extracts yearly from its exploitation and oppression
of the Negro people, according to the conservative estimate of a cum
petent former Government economist. 6 And we have it on the authm.t,
of one of America’s greatest Presidents, himself a lifelong student m
politics, that the Government of the United States is the creature of ....
nopoly capital. “The masters of the Government of the United Stairs
President Wilson declared in 1913, “are the combined capitalists m,i
manufacturers of the United States.” 6

They are also the masters of the city, county and state government
which, with the Federal Government and the monopolists themselvi .
are members of one of the largest and most profitable criminal mi,
spiracies known to history. While monopoly’s immediate interest is ih
our billions of dollars of profit, its long term aim, as we have said, 1
keeping the political and economic control it now enjoys over the Amm
can people and the American government through emasculating denm
cratic mass movements by disfranchising millions and setting one gr.uih
of Americans over and against another. This is its basic device for keepin,
wages low and profits high.

Only those who believe that semantics can conceal fact, that verbal m
cumlocutions can disguise truth, maintain that those dominating
country economically do not dominate that country politically. As einh

4) ibid.

5) Perlo, American Imperialism, p. 89.

6) The New Freedom, p. 58.

THE EVIDENCE

I 33

In 1776 Adam Smith asserted in his Wealth of Nations, “Civil govern-
ment ... is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the
,i( K ;,r. . . ” 7 He might have added and “for the aggrandizement of tht
thh at the expense of the poor.” This was the considered view of a
most; searching study of monopoly domination of the United States by
1 lie United States Government’s own Temporary National Economic
1 ommittee. One hundred and four years after Adam Smith, Government
fionomists themselves said of monopoly: “A more nearly perfect mecha-
nism for making the poor poorer and the rich richer could scarcely be
ilrvised.” 8

Mastery of the mechanisms of government by corporate capital enables
monopoly to initiate the conspiracy for genocide from which it profits.
Representative Adolph J. Sabath of Illinois, a member of Congress for
over forty-three years, partly spells out the way in which this conspiracy
is carried out. In December, 1947, Congressman Sabath said that in all
his experience he had never seen such eagerness by Congress to carry

I ml the orders of the National Association of Manufacturers, the chief
mouthpiece of monopoly. “The orders,” he said, “come down from the
NAM to the GOP national headquarters in Washington and they assign
1 1 ir Congressmen to do the specific job required. The Pews and the
t)u Ponts who control NAM, also control the GOP, and they will also
, ontrol the nomination of a Republican candidate for President. These
men have implicit confidence that their orders will be carried out, and
e xamination of the GOP record in Congress shows how right they are.” 9

But control by the Pews and Du Ponts, as well as the Morgans, Rocke-
Icllers, Mellons and Fords is not limited to Republicans. As the million-
aire banker, Frederick Townsend Martin wrote in 1911 and with the
incredible intensification of monopoly power it is infinitely more true
, n day— w It matters -not one iota what political party is in power or what
President holds the reins of office. We are not politicians or public

I I linkers; we are the rich; we own America; we got it, God knows how,
hut we intend to keep it if we can by throwing all the tremendous weight
of our support, our influence, our money, our political connections, our
purchased senators, our hungry congressmen, our public-speaking dema-
gogues into the scale against any legislature, any political platform,
any presidential campaign that threatens the integrity of our estate.” 1

Political and economic freedom for the Negro people means increased
freedom for the whole American people and the beginnings of a ‘politi-

7) Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 2 volumes. Londoa
1930, volume II, p. 207.

8) TNEC, Monograph No. 21, p. 18.

9) The Truth About Socialism, Leo Huberman, New York, 1950, pp. 103, 4.

10) The Passing of the Idle Rich, p. 149-

*34 GENOCIDE

cal platform” that “threatens the integrity” of anti-democratic monopoly
rule It also threatens the integrity of super-profits. This is the gen«|,
of the conspiracy of which we complain. A conspiracy is defined as “am
apparent combination of circumstances leading to an event; a conciu
rence: a general tendency, as of circumstances, to one event.” Legally
it is an agreement or arrangement between two or more persons for ill,
performance of an unlawful act. A conspiracy can be recognized by m
results as well as revealed by dictaphone or exposed by spies. There ||
the chance of error in human testimony but the result of a conspira. y
is indisputably there for all to see.

In the present crime we find a “combination of circumstances leadii.„
to an event as well as concurrence and general tendency. But moie
important, are ponderable results which require the prior conspiratorial
agreement of many men. We find written law, wage scales and other
economic facts, the legal opinions of courts, the incitements of official'.,
the policies and measures of government, legislative acts and failures m
act, the deliberate use of the police and the courts, the discriminate y
practices of Big Business, discrimination and segregation by federal, stair
and county governments, all combining over a long period of years m
one invariable result— the systematic institutionalized genocidal oppirn
sion of the Negro people of the United States for profit. Such a massive
result is impossible without a prior concurrence and agreement. Tim
conspiracy is synchronized so skillfully that not only do the acts of the
judicial, legislative and executive branches of the Federal Governmcm
sustain each other in contributing to the desired end, but Federal act*
mesh with the similar acts of subordinate governmental groups on stair
county and municipal levels. The constant and invariable result is di*'
crimination in employment, low wages, bad housing, deniafof medical
treatment, enforced living in ghettos, denial of equality of accommoda
tions and services as well as equality in the courts, enforced by a com
bination of genocidal terror and racist law, the whole contributing to thr
giant profits of monopoly.

Such institutionalized oppression of an entire people does not take
place through accident or negligence. It is aot the result of original sin
of historic caprice, or of the “peculiar” character of the Negro people |i'
is deliberate and the result of plan. It is the result of the actions of human
beings wilfully actJhg together to write and physically, economically
and judicially sustain racist law that deprives the Negro people of thr
right to vote or to organize for their political and economic advance
ment. It is the result of a conspiracy, we repeat, to commit genocide for
profit, a conspiracy engineered and direct^! by monopoly and executed
by its state power on a federal, state, county and municipal level.

“United States imperialism today drains profits from all parts of thr

THE EVIDENCE 135

lupitalist world,” Mr. Perlo writes in his authoritative study, “But the
original base of Wall Street superprofits, and' still a larger source than
.my single foreign country, is the oppression of the Negro people within
flic United States.” 11

Alter showing how northern capital through its Republican Party
il«* sorted the Negro people in the South after the Civil War and Recon-
*i motion, Mr. Perlo points out the steps by which northern capital built
ii\ control of Southern industry and agriculture on the resubjugation of
1 lie Negro people:

"The political course followed by the Republican Party and the Army in
ilu South was an alliance with the former slaveowners for the resubjugation
ill 1 he Negro people — a precursor of the future alliances of finance capital
v nil the reactionary landowners in the colonies and the semi-colonies. Their
ncmomic course was to prevent the Negro people from getting the land, to
|n (-serve the plantation system in a new set-up in which northern banker
merchants and manufacturers derived the lion's share of the profits from its
-I mation, with the southern landowners as junior partners and overseers.
"This process reached its peak during the decade of the 1890’s when the

• Kpansion pressures of the new banking and industrial monopolies found their
lit st great outlet in the South. It was mainly during this decade and the years
immediately following that the Jim Crow statutes of the South were enacted.
New state constitutions disfranchising the Negro people were adopted. Negroes
vvrrc driven out of local government bodies and the Congress of the United
'.I ales. In a thirteen year period there were almost two thousand recorded
lynchings. Through terror and propaganda, the alliance between the Negroes

• •id the poor whites was completely destroyed, and its expression in the
People’s Party (Populists) deprived of influence.

“The economic subjugation of the Negro people went along with the terror.

I Jrgro workers, who constituted most of the skilled labor force of the South
idler the Civil War, were systematically driven out of higher-paying jobs and
kept out of entire industries (e.g. cotton textiles). They were rounded up for
« I isi in-gang construction work and slave-labor turpentine camps, herded into
lumber camps and mines. Special measures were adopted to keep Negroes

I min owning farms, to force more and more of them into plantation servi-
tude and low-wage industrial labor, says Harry Haywood.

"At the same time, the northern bankers and industrial monopolists tight-

• ned their grip on southern economic life to extract super-profits from the
oppressed Negro people, and to a lesser extent from southern white workers
mid sharecroppers cut off from the Negroes by economic favoritism and
hi* ist propaganda. Railroads, cotton mills, and the coal, iron, steel and tobacco
Industries were all expanded and in varying degrees brought under control
<•1 northern capital. Wall Street banks and insurance companies took over

II large proportion of the plantation land either directly or through their
monopoly control of credit and of the commodity exchanges. By 1900
northern investments in the South amounted to a billion dollars, double the

III rn existing volume of foreign investments. In later years these holdings
were multiplied and extended into new industries — oil, electric power, rayon,

11) American Imperialism, p. 82.

GENOCIDE

136

and chemicals — which are northern-owned even more completely than tin
old industries.

“Thus the South was converted virtually into a semicolony of Wall Street
with the Negro workers providing most of the colonial labor.” 12

As many of the Negro people migrated to the north and west, tin
same monopolists who controlled the South imposed the same pattern
of super-exploitation upon them, perhaps in less obvious form. Tli#
super-exploitation, and the conspiracy which gains from it, continue 1
today on a larger and more profitable scale than ever before. As Ameri-
can monopoly gains in strength, reaching out for control of the world,
the exploitation of the Negro people in the United States increases ill
scope and severity. Thus, in 1947 the median wage or salary income <»l
white wage earners was $1,980, of non-white wage earners $863, or 43,6
per cent as much, according to the United States Department of Com*
merce. In 1949, according to United States Census Bureau reports, whilr
16,800,000 Americans in 4,700,000 families had an income of less than
$1000 a year, the income of white families was two times greater than
that of Negroes.

Using the 1947 figures, this difference of more than $1,100 in annual
earnings gives a measure of the amount of extra income, of super-profit*,
which employers derive from the average Negro worker over and abov®
the normal profits derived from a white worker. There are those who 1 1 y
to attribute this disparity in income to the Negro’s lack of education, firil
depriving him of it and then charging him with it. However, govern
ment statistics plainly reveal that the disparity is of a racist nature,
Whites in 1939 who had a college education averaged $2,046 annually,
while Negroes with the same education had median earnings of $1,047,

But it is in agriculture that the .colonial-type oppression of the^Negro
people takes on its most extreme form. The majority of Negro farm
operators are share-tenants and croppers in the South who pay up m
half their crops in rents and who are cheated on the prices of their prod
ucts by usurious interest and various other ways. Even larger in numbc»
are the Negro farm laborers, the landless ones who are most exploited
In July 1947 the average daily wage of farm laborers in the West North
Central States, where very few Negroes are employed, was $6.52. In thr
East South Central States, where perhaps half of all farm laborers are
Negroes, the average daily wage was $3.24. For all rural white families,
the median income in 1947 was $2,156; for non-white $1,026 — about thr
same $1,100 differential that was shown for non-farm wage earners in
I 947*

Another source of profit derives from the tens of thousands of
Negroes arrested each year in the South for no crime of thei*- own, but

2) Ibid., pp. 82-3.

THE EVIDENCE

i37

In, incarceration at forced labor on prison farm ' * nd . l^of'iet'unpS
„| food companies and contractors who reap the fruits of unp

'"'i'L large, asks Mr. Perlo, are the super-profits derived by ^ United

^ by regarding as extra
unfits the * 1,100 difference between the median Negro w^andmrfun

ireent figures show a similar result for 1948 and 1949-
Th s Ce sum of four billions of dollars in super-profits is, then,

TddSt *:

lf j nllars oer year. The first step m breaking the grip ot American
imperialism abroad, is forcing it to release from bondage the Amerrcan

N r„r P M, a ,da h lTn' his African D , points out that Negroes
ir^ot only paid less than white workers bu, the, are pa.d less for ,obs
It “ ulrl more exertion, more skill, more endurance and which are
more dangerous and less healthful than jobs ordinarily
workers In Mr. Myrdal’s words, the jobs reserved for Negro are char-
• d “hv a high degree of physical and psychological disutility and
“^”nd stmnS mSula, LLn.” In describ.ng the disadvantages
<,f some of the principal Negro jobs, he writes.

-jrttg HIS S -

instruction, excessive exposure to the elements and so on.

He cites as typical conditions in the Ford Motor Company. (Actua y,
, “d isTbove Se average because employs more Negro workers and
fives them higher skilled jobs than any other auto plant.) In the
room at Ford, he writes, where wages are high, scarce y one per cen

♦ f the workers are Negroes. But in Ford’s foundry, where the work
requires equal skill to that in the tool room and is far more intense an
dangerous, forty-seven per cent of the workers are Negroes and
wages are considerably less than those paid in the tool room.

* T3 ) An American Dilemma, Vol. II, PP* 10 79 ff *

138 GENOCIDE

The US. Census of Manufacturers for 1947 indicates something of thr
super-exploitation of Negro workers in particular industries:

Hourly rate

1. Sawmills in Oregon (almost all white workers) $1.61

Sawmills in Alabama (mostly Negroes) .63

2. Linseed oil mills (white workers, Minnesota) 1.28

Cotton seed oil mills (southern industry) .73

3. Fertilizer manufacturing in North (fair proportion Ne-

groes) 1.13

Fertilizer manufacturing in Georgia (majority Negroes) .76

4. Cigarette manufacturing (largely white industry) 1.12

Tobacco stemming and drying (overwhelmingly Negro) .75

Negro wages are kept low through discrimination in employment on
the basis of race, in obvious violation of the Charter and the Genocide
Convention. The Negro is held in such economic bondage that to live lie
must work for almost any wage offered. Discrimination keeps a large
unemployed reserve that acts as an effective brake on all wages, thus
depressing the wages of white workers as well. Monopoly is the sourer
of by far the largest amount of employment discrimination in the United
States and, faithfully reflecting the desires of monopoly, the Government
of the United States in the next highest offender.

According to the report of the Federal Fair Employment Practice
Committee, later killed by Congress, for the fiscal year 1943-44, business
was charged with 69.4 per cent of the discrimination brought before the
committee. Government agencies were charged with discrimination in
24.5 per cent of the cases, and labor unions with 6.1 per cent. 80.8 per
cent of the complaints charged refusal of employment on the basis of
race — 96.7 per cent were Negroes. Four out of five cases which came
before the committee concerned Negroes who were refused employment
on the basis of race.

This pattern, so integral to profit, continues, of course, to the present.
It has in fact accelerated with the collapse of FEPC which might have
acted as a deterrent. A Negro vice president of Ford Local 600, United
Auto Workers, CIO, told the National Trade Union Conference on
Negro Rights, held in Chicago, on June 11, 1950, that:

“Sixty percent of tfce lines standing before the Ford Employment office
today are Negro workers. . . . The Negro people have again found it neces-
sary to fight for the right to work and they have reached the stage of fighting
for their rights as a nation within a nation.”

The long lines of Negro workers before the Ford gates have an obvious
relationship to the wages of the workers employed at Ford’s. The con-
ference mentioned above declared that “employers see new .opportunities

THE EVIDENCE

in pit white labor against black labor.” The Conference described some-
iliing of the situation facing the Negro in employment today. It said in
|ni it :

“A new and grave situation confronts us as well as the whole labor move-
ment. . . . With unemployment rapidly becoming a mass problem among us
(69 per cent in Chicago; 50 per cent of those receiving relief in Toledo,
Negroes); with widespread failure to upgrade Negroes in higher skilled jobs,
with no special measures of adequate scope being taken to safeguard our job
lights or to open apprenticeship, skilled training and jobs to our expanding
numbers of young graduates, employers see new opportunities to pit white
I ilior against black labor. ... No amount of pious talk and cheap lip service
in hide stark facts of life ... the growth of poverty, unemployment, sickness,
'.lib-standard housing, increased attacks on our civil rights, on the very life
md limb of 15,000,000 Negroes. . . .”

Corporate discrimination for profit is, in fact, increasing, as revealed
by a sample of official statements:

A representative of the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Com-
mission told a Detroit city-wide conference of the United Auto Workers
I 'air Employment Practices Committee that job discrimination against
Negroes was mounting. The report said that in 1945 some 35 per cent of
ihc employers requesting help specified “white only.” In April, i 947 >
this had jumped to 44.5 per cent. In 1949 it rose to 49.8 per cent. And
m 1950 it reached 80 per cent.

The Chicago Committee on Human Relations reported in May, 1950
1 hat employment discrimination against Negroes and other minority
groups is increasing. Non-white workers are nine per cent of the total
labor force while it is estimated they form twenty-two per cent of the
I unemployed in Chicago.

A study by the Race Relations Department of Fisk University of
uitergroup practices in the United Packinghouse Workers, CIO, revealed
1 1 hat Negro workers in Kansas City had less take-home pay and more
grievances than white members of the same union.

In New York State, discrimination in employment increased in 1949
I by 15 per cent over 1948, according to the complaints received by the
I New York State Commission Against Discrimination.

Profit from Negro Ghettos

Another source of profit to United States finance capital is the segrega-
I lion of Negroes into the slum areas and ghettos common to virtually every
I large American city. New York City is typical of conditions in most
1 large cities. The Harlem ghetto is owned by the largest of the country’s
j insurance companies, mortgage companies, banks, and real estate specu-
1 lators operating with bank credit. They constitute a “mortgage conspir-

I 4 0 GENOCIDE

acy” to limit Negro housing — once investigated by the Federal Govern 1
ment but subsequently forgotten. Here the Negro people are imprison^ I
and here the rents are 50 per cent higher than in other working clai
areas.

In New York City, as elsewhere, slum clearance and housing prom
are no solution for the Negro people since they are often forbidden
entrance into the new housing projects. They are driven from the slumi I
but barred from the new projects arising on those slums that are paid
for by their own taxes. Nothing perhaps so well demonstrates the si il
servience of government to monopoly’s drive for profits than the incretl
ible story of the gigantic Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’s MU}
cessful efforts to exclude Negroes from its tax-supported Stuyvcjam
Town housing development. This insurance octopus has kept NegroU
from living on property supported by tax rebates to the company. Mum*
over, complaisant courts have aided the monopoly in evicting thnU
white tenants who tried to break down its exclusion of Negroes.

“Negro citizens are held virtual prisoners in substandard housing nil
over America,” writes Leslie S. Perry, of the National Association for tin
Advancement of Colored People. 14 The imprisonment of Negroes Ji»n»
ghettos for profit is revealed in Baltimore, for example, where the twenty
percent of the population who are Negroes are crowded into less than
two per cent of the living space. In Chicago’s Black Belt the population
density is 90,000 persons per square mile, although 35,000 per square mil*
is considered the optimum under which health can be maintained
A new U.S. Senator shocked his colleagues in 1949 by taking a few on *
tour of “the worst housing in America” — only two blocks from the Sen
ate’s own palatial building. And, incredibly, a year later, thi^slum houi
ing was being torn down to make room for — another more palatial build
ing for the Senators! A single block in Harlem has a population of 3,871
persons. “At a comparable rate of concentration,” concluded The Arc hi
tectural Forum , “the entire United States could be housed in half of New
York City.”

“In every city of the United States where the Negro constitutes an
appreciable part of the population he has been relegated to the slum*
and tenements,” writes Mr. Perry, adding that he is kept there through
violence, restricted covenants and court decisions. 15

He points ovft that municipal services are denied the Negro people:

“Their public streets and highways are usually allowed to remain in a stall
of disrepair and neglect; city refuse services such as garbage, trash and a*.h
removal are infrequent and indifferent; seldom are there the parks, plav

THE EVIDENCE

::;rr tE » ha, e „ f« *= m °< ■>« «»

IIKCS U1C5C dltaa a

Virtually every authority agrees that these Negro ghettos are man
hey are profitable to the insurance companies, mortgal
"nd ^/corporations that own then,. -All »

«iiics Mr Perry, “agree that Negroes pay from io to 50 pe ,

t heir quarters than are paid by whites for comparable facilm .

I his is the planned result of monopoly-artificially restricting the -«»PP
ll0US i n g Even formal reports of the United States Government occ
llimally admit that the American ghetto for the Negro people persr
e it is profitable to big business. Thus the report on civil ngV
|„ ii)47, To Secure These Rights, made at the order of President «

that “Discrimination in housing results primarily from

Notices These practices may arise from special interests of bus m (

' .ups such as the profits to be derived from confining minorities

a ’ reas . . . . Again it is ‘good business’ to develop exclusive restrict*

Hiilnirban developments which are barred to all but white genu e
\l.n declaring that banks are reluctant to give Negro veterans Ipa
1 ^he GI Bill of Rights for the building of homes, , -d ^ that P-
builders “show a reluctance” to build for Negroes t he report s ta
I'liese interlocking business customs and devices form the core
Jisuiminatory policy.” 1

Denial of the Vote

The American Legend states that, no matter what *e tymnny e
Where, every American citizen be he rich or poor, black or white,
woman, has the right and duty of voting his convictions.

The American fact is that millions are denied the vote because

lire poor or because of their race or because o ot .

The legend is that everyone who wants to votes. The fact is
J&, the lowest of .be mdusmabeed fattens m the pro,

I lioii of population that does vote. i- c

The American Legend proclaims that because of the eq y
I vming booth the rich have no more influence than the po .

Th e American fact is that in seven American states Americans
, MV f or t he privilege of voting, and that this tax on voting was pass©
’ |,e wealthy for the express purpose of keeping the poor from votin

, mpreSve tax, falling hardest on those with lowest incomes. In

and piles up year after year. Americans pay to voi

14) An Appeal to the World, 1947, p. 79.

15) Ibid., p. 77.

16) Ibid., p. 77 -

17) Pp. 67, 68.

1 4 2 GENOCIDE

Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas an!
Virginia.

As profit is the motive of this conspiracy, so denial of the vote is III
method. It is sometimes accomplished ‘‘legally” through the poll 1.14
sometimes through hidden political machinations. In the South wbnt
one party dominates, it operates through the so-called Democratic “wlm#
primary. ’ Special tests have been devised to eliminate those Negroes wlm
dare to attempt their Constitutional right of ballot where the “whil»
primary” has been condemned. But whatever the mechanics of disfran-
chisement, it is enforced by murder, assault and terror on the basis nl
race, a small part of which is enumerated in this petition under the appro
priate articles of the Genocide Convention.

It is through this device of robbing millions of Americans of thrlf
vote that the economic-political conditions for the profitable oppression
of the Negro people are maintained. The fact is that only the wealth,
the conservative, and the white supremacists are permitted to vote ill
the South. They alone have freedom of political organization and assrl
ciation. This restricted suffrage not only gives reaction the politic il
economic control of whole states, countries, towns and cities in the South
but gives it a preponderant voice and control of the Federal Government
Limited suffrage, controlled by monopoly, elects representatives to tin
Federal Congress whose influence is decisive in national affairs beam#
of the committee and seniority system of Congress.

Federal laws are written in committees, frequently determined an. I
dominated by a single chairman and a handful who vote with him,
Of the nineteen standing committees, for example, in the House .-l
Representatives, ten are currently headed by Southerners, elected by ....
oligarchy, by a small minority of technically eligible white voters. Tl.r
three most powerful committees in the U.S. Senate are headed by similar
poll-taxers Foreign Relations by Connally, Armed Services by Russell,
inance y George. A Texan and two Georgians determine the basic
oreign and domestic policy of the entire nation. In neither state can il.r
Negro vote except at his own peril.

Where the disfranchised black populatioi? is the majority, or near
majority, the white people allowed to vote sometimes have a political
stiength ten to twenty times greater than their fellow citizens in the norlli
an west. Thus in South Carolina, it took 4,393 voters to elect a reprr
sentauve to Congress in 1946 whereas in Illinois it took 137,877 voters.

In Mississippi in 1946, it took 4,993 voters to elect a congressional reprr
sentative, while in Rhode Island 136,197 voters were necessary. The total
vote for ten members of Congress in Georgia in 1946 was 161,578, bin
in Wisconsin 983,918 votes were cast for ten members of Congress Sincr
the South permits but one party as well as one “race” in its elections, it

THE EVIDENCE

M 3

*«|iiircd 32,573 out of 53,087 votes in 1946 to elect the Negro Congress-
miii A. Clayton Powell of New York while it required only 5,429 out
•I ’ m ,}29 to elect the arch-racist Rankin of Mississippi. Dorn of South
wnlina won with 3,527 out of a total of 3,530 while Dawson, Negro
ftmgressman from Illinois, needed 38,040 votes out of a total of 66,885.

1 >11 July 21, 1947 it was stated on the floor of the House of Representa-
|| V 1 n 1 hat “In the Presidential elections of 1944, 10 percent of the poten-
IMl voters voted in the seven poll tax states as against 49 percent in the
In 1 vote states. In the congressional elections of 1946, the figures are 5
burnt for the poll tax states as compared with 33 percent for the free-
".iing states.” 18

I he total number disfranchised in the South, including states without
in poll tax, exceeds the number who actually vote. Thus, in the South
NiLmtic States, using the 1940 census for voting population figures and
♦In 1946 congressional elections for the vote, 24.4 percent of those

• lii'.ihle to vote were Negroes who were entirely disfranchised, while
»|n actual number of voters was only 22.2 percent. In the East South
' antral States 25 percent of those eligible to vote under the United
w lies Constitution were Negroes — and they were disfranchised — while
llir actual number of voters was only 16.5 percent of those twenty-one

us and over. In the West South Central States 17.9 percent were dis-
lumdiised Negroes while only 14.2 percent of those over twenty-one
ns old actually voted. In the whole South of those eligible to vote in
i.qf. under the United States Constitution, only 18 percent did so, while
In non-voters totalling 82 percent.

There, are some sufficiently short-sighted to believe that this wholesale
Ulranchisement is merely the misfortune of the Negro. But the eminent
.. Iiolar, Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, points out that disfranchisement not only
menaces the entire American people but the whole world:

. . the disfranchisement of the American Negro makes the functioning
1 .ill democracy in the nation difficult; and as democracy fails to function in
'lir leading democracy in the world, it fails in the world. . . . Let us see what
lint the disfranchisement of Negroes has upon democracy in the United
1 »iics. In 1944, five hundred and thirty-one electoral votes were cast for the
1*1 * -.ident of the United States. Of these one hundred and twenty-nine came
limn Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, North and South

• uolina, Texas, Virginia, Florida and Mississippi. The number of these
nics and the party for which they were cast, depended primarily upon the

•liNlranchisement of the Negro and were not subject to public opinion or
I mocratic control. They represented nearly a fourth of the power of the
In (oral college and yet they represented only a tenth of the actual voters. . . .
"In other words while this nation is trying to carry on the government ot
' I" United States by democratic methods, it is not succeeding because of the

iH) To Secure These Rights, p. 39.

144 GENOCIDE

premium which we put on the disfranchisement of the voters of the Sou!
Moreover, by the political power based on this disfranchised vote the ml*
of this nation are chosen and policies of the country determined. The numb
of congressmen is determined by the population of a state. The larger ||i
number of that population which is disfranchised means greater power p
the few who cast the vote. As one national Republican committeeman !••
Illinois declared, ‘The Southern States can block any amendment to the Unlit !
States Constitution and nullify the desires of double their total of Not i li* •
and Western states/

“According to the political power which each actual voter exercised in id|
the Southern South rated as 6.6, the Border States as 2.3 and the rest of II
country as about r. . . .

“When the two main political parties in the United States become him
ceptable to the mass of voters, it is practically impossible to replace eitliri ft!
them by a third party movement because of the rotten borough system \m
on disfranchised voters.

Not only this but who is interested in this disfranchisement and win
gains power by it? It must be remembered that the South has the largtti
percentage of ignorance, of poverty, of disease in the nation. At the same tmi*
and partly on account of this, it is the place where the labor movemeni In
made the least progress; there are fewer unions and the unions arc lim
effectively organized than in the North. Besides this, the fiercest and hum
successful fight against democracy in industry is centering in the Soul li. In
Just that region where medieval caste conditions based mainly on color, atllff
pardy on poverty and ignorance, are more prevalent and most successful. Ami
just because labor is completely deprived of political and industrial pown,
investors and monopolists are today being attracted there in greater mini!",
and with more intensive organization than anywhere else in the Unit^l
States." 19

Dr. Du Bois, Negro leader who is now himself under indictment !•
his efforts for peace, has correctly pointed out who gains power by <ln
franchising the Negro. Monopoly finance gains power. It does««o, in till
first place by controlling the governmental machinery which drafts tin
Hitler-like racist laws and policies to subjugate the Negro people. An* I
if uses its governmental power to foment and abet extra-legal violent
against the Negro people, particularly when they attempt to vote. 'Ib-
is often done quite openly through state-chartered organizations of ilk
Ku Klux Klan. In this connection we submit in the Appendix (Dm 11
ment A) a detailed case history of the use of violence as a state policy by
the State of Georgia to prevent Negroes from voting in elections in iIi.h
state. It is typical j>f systematic denial of the vote in the Southern statOli
as shown above in Mississippi also.

This document was submitted as an Offer of Proof concerning viob
tion of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the Unilc!
States by Stetson Kennedy, well-known author of studies concerning ill-

19) Appeal to the World, prepared for the National Association for the Advancemmi
of Colored People,” 1947, pp. 6, 7, 9, 10.

THE EVIDENCE *45

y,t of the Negro in the South and a former member of the Georgia
hirrau of Investigation. It was submitted in the case of the United States
, 1 America v. William L. Patterson , internationally renowned Negro

and head of the Civil Rights Congress. Mr. Patterson, it will be

|K ailed, was indicted for contempt of Congress after Representative tien-
Lnn Lanham of Georgia had called him “a black son of a bitch and
Ul attempted to assault him during a Congressional inquiry into alleged
ibhying.

Disfranchisement through Terror in Georgia
Mr. Kennedy’s document reads in part:

The witness, Stetson Kennedy, would testify as to the facts showing
L unconstitutional denial or abridgment of the right of a substantial
number of citizens of Georgia to vote in the Congressional elections in
,l, ,1 State during the period 1940 to 1950. These facts are as follows:

| "1. During this entire period from 1940 to 1948 no one was allowed
In vote in Georgia who had not registered.

f "1. Election of 1940: The United States Census Bureau’s records show
llul in 1940 the total number of citizens in Georgia above the age of 21,
tin | ,hus eligible under Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the
t .institution to vote in Congressional elections, was 1,766,969.

"Official returns of the 1940 election in Georgia as reported by the
lecretary of State of Georgia was 312,539 votes. In other words, only 17
, m cent of the total population of Georgia above the age of 21 years
ui ceeded in actually casting a ballot in 1940.

"p Election of 1948: Census Bureau records reveal that in 1948 the
1 'l>ulation of Georgia above the age of 21 years was 1,968,519.

1 In the election of that year, a total of 365,356 votes were cast, according
in 1 he records of the Secretary of State of Georgia. This was 18 percent

,il the total population above the age of 21.

"4. Negro Population and Vote-. According to the Census Bureau

ids, every third person in Georgia during the period 1940 to 1948 was

, Negro. But, according to the same source, in 1948, 82 percent of the
liite population above the age of 21 was registered and only 18 percent
..I (he Negro population above the age of 21 years had been registered.

I hr percentages for 1940 were considerably lower because of the existence
,1 that time of the State’s poll tax law, and the inviolate status of the
white primary.

“These figures and percentages indicate that an overwhelming majority
--I the Negro citizens of Georgia above the age of 21 did not exercise the

tight to vote in Congressional elections.

"The witness, if permitted to testify, would establish that the failure

GENOCIDE

146

to exercise the franchise by Negroes as aforesaid was due to a denial #»
abridgment of their right to do so and that there were three chief can*’
for this denial or abridgment: First, direct action by officials of the SiMl
of Georgia; second, official action by the Democratic Party of the Stlitt
Georgia acting as an instrument of that State; and third, the noted!
action of private organizations and corporate powers acting with il
actual or implied sanction of the State of Georgia. He would testify iIm
5* As to the first cause, official action by the State of Georgi;i lw
resulted in the denial or abridgment of the right of citizens above the ||i
of 21 to vote in the Congressional elections in that State in the decade I mi
1940 to 1950 by means of the following:

(a) Poll tax legislation;

(b) Intentional refusal on the part of election registrars to rcgiiMH
qualified Negro citizens;

(d) The enactment of legislation in Georgia abolishing all n
tration fists and requiring the re-registration of citizens jwvl
ously qualified to vote, and giving virtually unlimited diftcM
tionary powers to registrars to deny the voting right of miiv
citizen.

6. That the rules, regulations and primaries of the Democratic I\m
in the State of Georgia constitute an integral part of the election mac h in
ery of the State and that Party has acted as an agent of the State in if
conduct of primary elections for Congressional candidates in that Suit

that by the rules and regulations of that Party in effect durin^the pc I

1940 through 1946, Negroes were prohibited from voting in the Dm,,
cratic primaries; and that, since there was no Republican Congressimml
Primary held in the State of Georgia during said period, there was i»,
participation by Negro citizens above the age of 21 in the CongressiM
primaries hdd in Georgia during this period.

“7. That private and corporate organizations such as the Ku Kin
Klan, Inc. and the Columbians, Inc. had the official approval and assiM
ance of the public officials of the State of Georgia during the decade 19411
to 1950, and with^the sanction of said State engaged in terroristic activil it .
which created such fear and intimidation among qualified Negro citizcoi
of the State of Georgia, as well as election registrars of said State, as h>
prevent and preclude an effective registration and voting on the part of
large portions of the Negro citizens of that State in the Congressimi,,!
elections in Georgia in the decade 1940 to 1950.

8. That the following chronological compendium itemizing ovrn
threats, cross-burnings, masked parades, floggings, lynchings, purges fli.,1

THE EVIDENCE 147

ill it 1 acts of discrimination and violence against the Negro people o^
JnMgia, were committed during the period 1943 to 1948 with the Intern:
Dili or effect of preventing eligible Negro inhabitants of Georgia from
incising their right to vote in Congressional elections; that many of the
!!• Idcnts itemized were personally investigated by the witness for the
i-oigia Department of Law; and that many others (sources indicated)
■jr widely published throughout the State in the daily and weekly press,
'it' I ihus by virtue of such publication served as a deterrent to voting by
Ni>;ioes, not only in the locale where such act took place, but through-
nil 1 lie State. . .

I lie Kennedy study then enumerates some 107 terroristic acts and other

• line's, all of them clearly sanctioned by the State of Georgia, and the
Inuncial interests it serves, all of them plainly intended to thwart democ-

• 11 v by preventing qualified Negroes from voting. The crimes and tech-
niques enumerated are common to the 'whole South. Only the place,
•lilies, and actual actors would need to be changed to have the list repre-
■uiutive of that which constantly occurs, as other evidence submitted
(iimrs, in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, North and South

• molina, Virginia, Arkansas, and Texas among other states.

A random selection of the events detailed in this Georgia case history.
Hid, in a way, a case history for the whole South, includes such incidents
n l he following:

TORTERDALE, December 10, 1943. ‘Christian Democracy and White
'•upremacy are the greatest things which should emerge from this terrible
• .itastrophe,’ ex-governor Eugene Talmadge said with reference to Worlc
War II. Talmadge spoke as guest of honor at the annual klonklave of the
Rorterdale klavern of the Ku Klux Klan, held in Porter Memorial Audi
lorium, owned by the Bibb Manufacturing Company (textile chain). Amon^
those present were James A. CoRscott, Imperial Wizard of the KKK; Dr
Samuel Green, Grand Dragon of the Georgia Klan; Harold S. Gates, Exaltec
Cyclops of the Porterdale Klan; George Hamilton, Treasurer of the Stat<
of Georgia; Pat Campbell, member of the state legislature from Newtor
( ’.minty; Zach Cravey, fish and game commissioner under Talmadge’s ad
ministration; and Johnny Goodwin, formerly Talmadge’s highway patro
« hief, personal bodyguard and then leader of the Vigilantes, Inc. Even
given statewide publicity by Atlanta Constitution, December 18, 1943 . .
GAINESVILLE, January 28, 1946. Klansmen from all over Georgia stage<
.1 masked parade and burned three crosses in the Negro section. City Fir
Chief served as coordinator. (Report to Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
ATLANTA Klavern No. 297, February 14, 1946. Floggings and lynching

recommended as solution to n r problems; all Klansmen urged to carr

weapons while engaged in Klan demonstrations. (Report to GBI.)
’ATLANTA Klavern No. 297, April 1, 1946. Cyclops Roper reported ths
he had conferred with gubernatorial candidate Eugene Talmadge on wa]

GENOCIDE

14b

and means of keeping Georgia Negroes from voting, and that Talm.nl*
had replied by writing the word ‘Pistols’ on a scrap of paper. Roper m.l
cated that Talmadge had promised to give the Klan a ‘free hand’ in m
race rioting that might develop while he was Governor. It was annouiM
that Brother Klansman Judge Luke Arnold’ would speak at Klavern 1
on the second Thursday in May on a plan to keep Negroes from votn.,
Roper reported listening in on a conversation between Grand Dragon Sami.
Green and Georgia House Speaker Roy Harris in Augusta in which Han
invited Klan leaders to discuss with him the prospect of getting the lcgiil*
ture to convene itself to adopt a white primary law, and other means .

u keeping Negroes from voting. (Report to GBI.)

^^^ANTA Klavern No. 1, April 8, 1946. Grand Dragon Green repniii
that Talmadge had promised if elected to sweep out of office everyone wk
did not believe in ‘white supremacy and ioo percent Americanism.’ II
CIO s Operation Dixie was attacked as ‘purely political’ and ‘for the n — -
and the Jew.’ ‘The KKK is declaring war on the CIO— we’re going to to,
their Operation Dixie in the bud,’ Green said. Applications for 98 nf*
memberships and 37 reinstatements were attributed to Klan interest 1,
the Talmadge campaign (Report to GBI.)

STONE MOUNTAIN, May 9, 1946. Some 1,000 Klansmen in a rob
ceremony inducted 300 new members from all over Georgia. This was lit.
Klan’s first major postwar cross-burning demonstration. (Associated IV.

__ May 9, 1946.)

“SWAINSBORO, July 11, 1946. In a statewide radio address, TaliiMil,
said, ‘Wise Negroes will stay away from the white folks’ ballot boxes
July 17. We are the true friends of the Negroes, always have been, mi.i
always will be as long as they stay in the definite place we have provide
for them.’ (Associated Press, July n, 1946.)

EATONVILLE, July n, 1946. W. S. Hooten, chairman of the boanl •
registrars, announced that 20 percent of Putnam’s County Negro np
trants. had been purged ‘on grounds of incompetence due to lack of cduc
tion, intelligence or character.’ The purge procedure which th*n swi|
across Georgia consisted of pro-Talmadge registrars serving thousands
Negro registrants with sheriff’s summonses to appear (during wotki.
hours) to ‘show cause’ why they should not be dropped for ‘illitci 1
criminal record, bad character,’ etc. All who failed to appear were ,im
matically purged. (Atlanta Constitution: July 12, 1946.)

Fifty percent of the county’s Negro registrants were puip
When some registrants resigned, new oi^s were appointed by Suprn
Court Judge W. H. Harper, and the purge continued. ( Atlanta Comm
tion, July 12, 1946.)

APPLING COUNTY. On July 10, 1946, a week before the primary, I !
District Judge Fi»nk H. Scarlett issued an order halting further pur)<ii>,
in Atkinson, Ben Hill, Pierce and Coffee Counties, and ordered the rt>ih
statement of 800 Negroes who had been purged in Appling County, ’ll
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had chaiy.
that more than 20,000 Negro residents had been challenged in ft
statewide purge, and demanded that the U.S. Department of Justice Ml
action. However, the Department decided to maintain a ‘hands off’ poll,
(Georgians were keenly aware that Senator Theodore Bilbo in a raili
address at Jackson, Mississippi, on June 22 had called upon ‘every rdl

THE EVIDENCE

149

blooded American in Mississippi to resort to any means at their command’
in prevent Negroes from voting and that he had been re-elected over-
whelmingly.) . . .

I I VZGERALD, July 16, 1946. Notices were tacked on the doors of Negro

iburches reading, ‘The first n r who votes in Georgia will be a dead

11 rl’ ( Atlanta Constitution, July 17, 1946.)

MANCHESTER, July 17, 1946. A State Senator picketed the polls with a
► nbotgun as a warning to Negroes not to vote. ( Atlanta Constitution, July

I 18, 1946.)

ATLANTA, August 26, 1946. Hoke Gewinner, speaking from a sound
| truck at a Columbian Street meeting in front of Exposition Cotton Mills,

tailed for organization on a block and precinct basis at ‘combat n r

bloc voting,’ and said, ‘There are just two ways to fight these things — with
ballots and with bullets. We are going to try ballots first.’ (Report to GBI.)
MOUNT VERNON, September 6, 1948. Isiah Nixon, Negro, shot down
in his home for having voted in the Democratic primary. ( Associated Press,
September 9, 1948.)

LYONS, November 20, 1948. Robert Mallard leader in the movement to
increase Negro voting, ambushed by robed band and shot while driving
from church to his home in Toombs County. ( Associated Press, November
28, 1948.)”

1 hese, then, are some of the methods of the conspiracy whereby finance
|nins with the state and terrorist organizations to disfranchise Americans
Ini political power and private profit. The conspiracy has made potent

II w of the spurious charge of “rape” as a political weapon. The charge of
1 ape” was consciously forged as a matter of state policy. It emerged in

1 be Southern states at the same historic moment as the poll-tax. It has
mice consistently been used to terrorize militant Negroes with the ever-
present menace of death by lynching or by “legal murder” through police,
incited mobs, and venal courts. Examples of how the cry of “rape” is
used, invariably on the basis of race, abound in the numerous cases listed
above. They include, among a good many others, the executed Martins-
ville Seven in Virginia, the martyred Willie McGee in Mississippi, and
Paul Washington in' Louisiana.

In most Southern states “rape” had no special connotation as a crime
until about 1890. Then it came into use as a political device for the oppres-
sion of the Negro people, as part of the drive completely to disfranchise
1 be Negro people and break the Populist movement. It was made into
1 weapon of terror and death at the same time the Southern states wrote
new State Constitutions to disfranchise Negroes. It coincided with the
body of oppressive, discriminatory legislation that is still on Southern
statute books. “Rape,” as a capital weapon of white supremacy, did not
<ome into being until the White Bourbons regained their power in the
l.ite eighties and early nineties. Before that time it was seldom a capital
offense, at least since the Civil War. Punishment was meted out on the

GENOCIDE

150

basis of equality of Negro and white. But since the 1890’s, thousands • )
Negroes have been lynched and ‘legally” executed on the basis of n**
on the spurious charge of “rape” while the number of* whites who luv*
been executed on the charge, legally or any other way, is virtually ml

“Rape” became an incitement to lynching — and lynching, as the Prcil
dent’s own Committee on Civil Rights noted in 1947, * s ultimaM
weapon of terror to keep the Negro in a subordinate status. The gcuo
cidal, murderous quality of the charge of “rape” is apparent to all in ihi
South. Two months after Willie McGee was legally murdered on
charge of “rape” in Mississippi, an all-white jury freed a white rapM
within a short time, despite virtually uncontradicted testimony.

The history and racist nature of the alleged crime of “rape” in ill*
State of Louisiana is the subject of a penetrating study by Dr. Oakley t
Johnson. It is included in the Appendix under the heading of Do. u
ment B.

Dr. Johnson made a thorough examination of the records in the oiln •
of the Secretary of State at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and found that from
1907 to 1950, a period of 43 years, not one white man charged with ra/t*
had been put to death in Louisiana , although 29 Negroes charged with
rape had been executed in that period . From 1900 to 1950, there writ
39 executions for “rape.” All but two of those executed were Negroes. In
addition to the Negroes officially put to death by the State of Louisiana
whose practices are standard for most Southern states — three others wn*
put to death in Louisiana by the United States Government durm)
World War II. They were Corporal John Walter Bordenave, 29; Priv.n.
Lawrence Mitchell, 18; and Private Richard Philip Adams, 25.

“They are added to the total in the attached list,” Dr. Johnson write*,,
“because their punishment took place on Louisiana soil and by^meau.
of the state’s portable electric chair, loaned for the purpose. These thin
ma\e a total of 40 Negroes put to death for rape in this state since 1900,
as compared to 2 white men! 7

Dr. Johnson compared the later records with the records from i8Af»
through 1889, before the charge of “rape” had been transformed into •
political policy for the oppression of the tsfegro people, Dr. Johnson
writes: “The following facts are clear from an examination of these old
records:

“1) From Civil War days until the consolidation of white political
control, punishment for rape was imprisonment only, never death; par
doning was frequent; and a differentiation was made between ‘rape’ and
‘intent to rape.’

“2) Race differences were noted for the purpose of description, but
had not yet hardened into caste differences.

“3) After the solidification of white rule politically, the setting up of

THE EVIDENCE I 5 I

1, death penalty for rape gave opportunity to return to virtual implied
■enactment of the Black Code with its differentiation between pumsh-
>1 1 it for whites and punishment for Negroes.”

( Mlicial murder by the state sets the pattern for the illegal murders of
Lulling and lynching which goes unpunished is genocide by the State.

In writing on lynching in Louisiana, Dr. Johnson observes: “No people
mu he held down undemocratically through use of democratic political
ins except through terroristic tactics, and this is the raison detre for
u, King. Louisiana members of Congress have steadily opposed anti-
i.in hing legislation. In Louisiana 355 recorded lynchings of Negroes took
,,| „ e between 1882 and 1948, a period of 66 years; a quarter of these lynch-
ing were due to allegations of rape.” .

Paul Washington, a Negro Army veteran of 24, now is facing legal
lynching in Louisiana on a charge of rape. The brother of his wife,
Lima Washington, was lynched in 1941. Undoubtedly referring to tie
Washington case, Dr. Johnson notes: “It is a serious question whether
m trial of a Negro for a crime by a state which has permitted 335
1 lynchings of Negroes in 66 years can be considered fair. It is appar-
..,,1 1 hat the 335 extra-legal killings of Negroes and the 40 Louisiana legal
Kuraitions for “rape” are both parts of a system of Black Code Justice
.11111 e out of keeping with the Federal Constitution and Federal civil
KL| US . . . And, it may be added, the Genocide Convention and the

I I lurter of the United Nations.

Disfranchisement by Economic Sanctions

Added to “legal” deterrents from voting, as well as terror, violence, and
ibe weapon of alleged rape, the conspiracy also employs economic pres-
.111 c against those Negroes who attempt to exercise their Constitutional
light of voting.

The white planters, employers and merchants of the South have tradi-

rally been linked in a conspiracy to deny land, houses, jobs, seed, fer-

lilizer and foodstuffs to Negro tenant farmers, sharecroppers and workers
wlio vote or attempt to vote.

This conspiracy dates from the Reconstruction period, when such sanc-
limis, coupled with Ku Klux Klan terrorism, served to subvert the Fif-
Kcnth Amendment. The sanctions have continued to this day. Not since
1 | 1C abolition of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which, among other things, dis-
uibuted commodities to needy ex-slaves, has the Southern Negro had
my refuge in the event that he is deprived of land, home, job or credit
for having tried to vote.

“We are told that all colored people who vote are going to starve next
year,” Emanuel Fortune told a Congressional investigating committee

GENOCIDE

152

in 1871. We have got to go to the merchants and have advance*
meat and corn.” Numerous other witnesses provided thirteen voluin.
of testimony to this same effect. This testimony could be duplicated toUt
if there were an agency to receive it.

Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act of 1870 provided a penalty of 1
years imprisonment or a $5,000 fine for anyone who sought to “prcvo"
any person guaranteed the right to vote under the- Fifteenth Amendm* 1
from voting by means of bribery, threats of depriving such person* ,i |
employment or by ejecting such persons from a rented house ... or ht I
threats of violence to such person or his family.” This section furfin
provided punishment for any one conspiring to interfere with the ri*;l<»
of franchise but it was nullified by the Supreme Court of the Unit..'
States in 1881. 21

When, near the turn of the century, the Populist movement
as we have seen, encouragement to Negro voting, the proprietary cl«t
intensified economic sanctions along with other forms of intimidatlt...
While this conspiracy was seldom expressed in writing, Democratic of. I
finals in Georgia did issue a circular in 1892 addressed “To the Deni.,
cratic Farmers and Employers of Labor,” in which they warned of |I>.
danger” of a Populist victory, and said:

“This danger, however, can be overcome by the absolute control which you
hr;“ erC K Se 0v k er your property- It is absolutely necessary that you shooM 1

bear tbe , P° Wer whlc . h y° ur situation gives over tenants, laborers

PP rs. ... he success of the Populists . . . means regulation or conlrttl I
of rents, wages of labor, regulation of hours of work, and at certain so;,. 1

and vn S a C a * a C P eace ’ prosperity, and happiness of yoursrlvfn

:Z y ? J r ' end l dCpends °V° U , T pr ° mpt ’ vi g°rous and determined effore, 1.
control those who are to such a large extent dependent upon you.”

As everyone knows, the several millions of Negroes now held in .1,
bondage of sharecropping and tenant farming are still under “the absolui. ,
control,” politically and economically, of the landlords and bank.-,
monopolists who finance the operations of the landlords. Economic sani
tins are also brought against those Negroes brave enough to run In,
pu , .1^, office. 'When Larkin Marshall, for example, prominent Neal*
publisher of Macoji, Georgia, announced in 1948 for the United Stair •
Senate as a Progressive Party candidate, he was threatened on June ill 1
with the foreclosure of the mortgage on his home. Two days lalci ,1
hery cross was burned before his home by the Ku Klux Klan.

InsurreafonTry <*”"»*** ‘° ,he Condition Affair, in the I .it

21) U.S. V . Arden, 6 F 819.

THE EVIDENCE
Racist Law

153

I he political and moral climate necessary for the conspiracy’s goal of
(Militical and economic control of the whole American people through
•Ulranchisement and oppression of the Negro minority is gained through
r» huge body of racist law passed by states which are themselves parties to
|)|r conspiracy. Members of the white population of these states, twenty
in number, are taught from earliest infancy by the example of the law
11 nr If that the Negro is so inferior that he cannot be allowed to associate
with his fellow citizens. To allow such association, so the laws often ex-
Illicitly state, would assure contamination of the whites.

The white child swiftly learns that a Negro has no rights that a white
nun is bound to respect. The white school child learns this in segregated
nhools, which are from their intrinsic nature, schools for potential vio-
Ic me. He sees from his earliest years that Negro children are apparently
In lor only ramshackle, tumble-down, inferior schools, monstrously over-
irowded, often without adequate sanitation facilities or protection from
• Ik weather and obviously beneath comparison with the schools that
while children attend. He sees, further, that court decisions forbid Negroes
In live in decent surroundings, that such decisions segregate them into
•I 1 lapidated, over-crowded, run-down areas.

1 1 c is taught that Negroes are the special targets of the police, that they
.it c not considered as a matter of solemn law fit to travel with white
I'rnple, eat with them, gather with them, work with them. It is drilled
into him that they are inherently inferior to white people, unfit to vote,
li/,y, corrupt, and violent, with no aim other than to gratify their passions.

1 1 c is frequently told that it is his high mission in life to protect the
purity of white womanhood, the purity of the white Democratic primary,

1 Ik* purity of white standards, from Negro pollution. His parents, his
t< .k hers, church, press, public officials and all the respectable and wealthy,
daily precepts and penalties, all combine to enforce upon him the criteria
.md necessity of white supremacy. Thus when he reaches maturity he is
thoroughly conditioned to play his part in the violence and oppression
1 hat this conspiracy finds so profitable.

T he similarity between Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws against the Jews
and white supremacist laws in the United States against the Negroes has
often been remarked upon. In both countries there was, and there still
r. in the United States, an obscurantist obsession with what both Nazi
md American racists have called “the purity of the blood stream.” The
criminal penalties in Nazi Germany, and in the United States were and
■i ill are, particularly severe for any “mingling of the bloott streams”
ih rough marriage or other cohabitation. Under both regimes, the pro-
*.( ribed minority is forced to live apart from its fellow nationals. Both

GENOCIDE

*54

countries, Nazi Germany and the United States, have penalized then
citizens on the basis of race, not only denying them protection of tit#
police and courts but using police and courts for assaults against them, |
The Nazis acted, as their statutes said, “for the protection of German i
blood just as the state of Virginia, among others, does in providinj 1
prison sentences for those who provide the state registrar with inconol
information as to their ethnic origin. The Nazis banned from citizenship
all except those “of German or kindred blood” (Artverwandten Blutci)
just as do many Southern states, although not with the brazen frankficM
of the Hitlerites. The Nazis were occasionally frank in acknowledging
their indebtedness to the United States for having provided them with •
model for their own racist legislation. One of their leading professors uf
jurisprudence, Dr. Heinrich Krieger, devoted a volume— Das Rassenrechi i
in den V ereinigten Staaten (Berlin, 1936) — to an admiring examinati'in
of the American theory and practice of racism.

“The most prolific governmental sources of such (racist) enactment#
are the cities,” writes Dr. Herbert Aptheker in the July, 1951 issue nl
Masses & Mainstream . “Every local community south of the Mason
Dixon line, and very many north of it, abound in racist ordinances. Mnn\
such bodies of law, usually in mimeographed form, are deposited only
in local city halls and collation of them has never been undertaken, but
some indication of their nature may be gotten from a few availabli
examples.

Section 597 of the Ordinances of the City of Birmingham, Alabama,
reads: ‘It shall be unlawful for a negro* and white person to play togetlu .
or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dommoci
or checkers.’ Those convicted of such horrendous conduct are subject tu
six months’ imprisonment or a $100 fine.

“The Atlanta, Georgia, code provides that ‘No colored barber skill
serve as a barbel for white women or girls; and that The officer in chargf
(of a cemetery) shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored person*
upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons.’ This la«i
is exceeded in chauvinist lunacy by the private regulation in force in tk
capital of the United States, ‘where a dog cemetery has erected a colm
bar against the burial of dogs belonging to colored people.’

“It may be addq*d that hundreds of villages and cities in the United
States, particularly in the South and West, bar Negroes (and/or Mexican
Americans and others) from remaining within their limits over-nigh i,
or, in many cases, from entering those limits.”

Twenty American states have adopted laws compelling segregation
The Constitution adopted in 1890, and the laws of Mississippi, are illih

Racist legislation, almost always, uses the lower-case form in writing the word Nc«k

THE EVIDENCE

155

native of racist law in the 20 Southern states. Although Article 3 of
Mississippi’s Bill of Rights provides that all persons “resident in this
M.ne, citizens of the United States” are citizens of Mississippi, Article 8,
h location Section 207, immediately proceeds to segregate citizens on the
li.isis of race. It provides “Separate schools shall be maintained for

• liildren of the white and colored races.”

Segregation is even provided in jail : Article 10, the Penitentiary and
Prisons, Section 225, stipulates that the legislature “may provide for . . .

1 lie separation of the white and black convicts, as far as practicable, and
lor religious worship of the convicts.”

Marriage between the races is forbidden : Article 145 General Provisions,
Section 263, states “The marriage of a white person with a Negro or
mulatto, or person who shall have one-eighth or more of Negro blood,
shall be unlawful and void.”

Even “advocacy” of social equality or intermarriage is penalized , a

• lear infringement on the Federal Constitution’s Bill of Rights: Chapter
.•i), Section 1103 of the Mississippi Code of 1930 reads, Any persons,
linn or corporation who shall be guilty of printing, publishing, or circu-
iting printed, typewritten or written matter urging or presenting for
public acceptance, or general information, arguments or suggestions in
lavor of social equality, or intermarriage, between whites and Negroes,
.hall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine not exceeding five
hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both fine
and imprisonment in the discretion of the court. ’

It imposes segregation on the railroads : Chapter 20, Section 11155 of the
Mississippi Code of 1930 states: “If any person or corporation operating a
lailroad shall fail to provide two or more passenger cars for each passenger
1 tain, or to divide the races, as provided by law, or if any railroad passen-
ger conductor shall fail to assign each passenger to the car or compartment
of the car used for the race to which the passenger belongs, he or it shall
he guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction shall be fined not less than
iwenty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars.”

Reviewing American racist law, Milton R. Konvitz, lawyer and Asso-
1 iate Professor at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell
University, writes:

“Legislation similar to that of Mississippi is in force in Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas,
Oklahoma and Texas. Similar but less stringent legislation is in force in
Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. In
Delaware, West Virginia and Missouri separation in travel is not required by
statute. Eight northern states (California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska.
Nevada, Oregon and Utah) forbid intermarriage, and some states permit
separate schools. Tn the maiority of northern states caste based on race and

GENOCIDE

156

color is not required and is in many states expressly forbidden by law. Neva
theless, even in these states public opinion and custom often enforce kllf
crimination.

“In twenty states segregation of pupils is mandatory or expressly permitm!

In three states the statutes require separate schools even for deaf, dumb aii>l
blind. Sixteen states require segregation in juvenile delinquent and refoun
schools; and in nine states separate trade and agricultural schools are requiml
Three states require separate school libraries. Florida stipulates that textbook*
used by Negro pupils shall be stored separately. Separate colleges are maiulit
tory in twelve states. Separate teacher-training schools are required in fourteen
states. In several states Negro pupils may be taught only by a Negro tear Jin
and white pupils only by a white teacher; one of the states provides that only
white persons born in the United States, whose parents could speak Engliil'
and who themselves have spoken English since childhood, may teach wlnn
pupils.

“In fourteen states the law requires separate railroad facilities. Three st.in*
stipulate that separate sleeping compartments and bedding are to be used by
Negro train passengers. Separate waiting rooms are required in eight stain
Separation in buses is required in eleven states; ten states have the saint
requirement affecting street car transportation. Three states provide I"*
separation on steamboats.

“Two states require separation of the races at circuses and tent show 1
Three states require separation in paries, playgrounds and on beaches. Thin
states require separation in billiard and pool rooms. Arkansas requires sepum
tion at race tracks. In Tennessee and Virginia separation at theaters a\u\
public halls is required.

“There are laws which require separation of the races in hospitals. In eleve n
states even mental defectives must be separated by race. In Alabama a whjM
female nurse may not take care of a Negro male patient.

“Separation is required by eleven states in penal and correctional institution .
Separate bathing facilities in such institutions are required by laws in Al.i
bama and Tennessee. Separate tables in such institutions are required by 11
statute of Arkansas and separate beds by statutes in two states.

“There are laws which require separation of the races in a multitude 0/
elations — too many to be mentioned here. Several examples will make clew
vhe scope of the Jim Crowism imposed by law: Oklahoma requires sepamll
telephone booths for Negroes; a Texas statute prohibits whites and Negro» i
from engaging together in boxing matches ; Arkansas requires a separation cif
the races in voting places; in Georgia a Negro minister may marry only Nc^n<
couples; in South Carolina Negroes and whites may not work together in 1 1 ••
same room in cotton textile factories, nor may they use the same doors ■•!
entrance and exit at the same time.

“If a state does n«t have an act calling for segregation with respect to a
specific matter, it is not to be assumed that with respect to that matter thru
is no segregation. Many of the southern and border states do not have law*,
requiring segregation in theaters and other places of public amusement; yn
the races do not mingle there, and the Negro cannot compel admission becamr
the states have no civil rights.” 22

22) "An Appeal to the World.” Prepared for the National Association for the Advam*
ment of Colored People, New York, 1947, pp. 44-45.

THE EVIDENCE

i57

Professor Konvitz places the responsibility and guilt for this plight of
1 lie Negro people squarely upon the Government of the United States:

“Coneress has refused to pass laws to declare the poll tax illegal; to make
,„tor™,„8ec,i, d , subject to fakt.1 U»; »

linvate employment in interstate commerce a crime; to define and guarantee
IS rijS in the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court has failed to
declare Jim Crowism in intrastate commerce unconstitutional, to outl
M-uregation in schools as a denial of due process or equal protection of the
Imsfto outlaw the restrictive covenant in the sale or rental of pwpjtyj®
declare the poll tax an unconstitutional tax on a federally guaranteed r g
lif 1 privilege. ^The Supreme Court has placed the Negro at the mercy of md -
vidual states; they alone have the power to define and guarantee civil rig .

I II,. Negro is a citizen of the United States, yet the thread that ties him to

(lie federal government, when it is a question of P rot ^‘ n S h ‘ s ^ - 1 e . y
nr property, is so thin that the government is compelled to admit its im

potence .” 23

The Federal Government, we maintain, should be compelled to admit
euilt which is an historic fact evident to all the world. Impotence in the
pmtection of nationals on the part of a government is merely a synonym
for guilt. We shall later detail the specific role of the United States Gov
rrnment in this conspiracy. At the moment we emphasize the part. of
uactionary finance and the various states in this conspiracy. As a direct
icsult of Jim Crow discriminatory state laws, monopoly profits through
|,>w property assessments and low taxes for schools, roads, playgrounds,
parks and health services. It profits not only in the South directly, but
over all the nation indirectly, from a segregation enforced by law
and designed to divide trade union and political movements and t us
guarantee low wages and high profits.

' This body of racist law, a conspiracy which embraces the monopolists
who profit from it, the states and their officials who enforce it, and the
Federal Government which permits it, means literally millions on tril-
lions of dollars annually to the Morgan interests controlling the South s
•a eel and power industries, the Rockefeller oil interests, the du Pont s
i hemical industries, the cotton and packing industries, and their inter-
locking banks which control Southern agriculture. (For a detailed sum-
mary of Monopoly Control in the South, see Appendix Document G.)
The representatives of these and other Wall Street interests are the politi-
cal and economic overlords of the South. They dominate legislatures
governors and party conventions, and often counties, towns and villages
They exert control through racist law and violence as well as throug
virtual direct control, in many areas, of police and courts.

23) Ibid., pp. 45-46.

i 5 8

GENOCIDE

Issuance of State Charters for Genocide
State responsibility for and participation in this conspiracy to commit
genocide is even more clear in the willful chartering of vigilante organ*
izations, which exist for terroristic anti-Negro purposes. These organi/.i
tions are encouraged by the various states which grant them tax*
exemptions as “non-profit, eleemosynary, benevolent, fraternal, and edul
cational” corporations. Such charters, issued by the Secretary of Stair
of the various states upon application and payment of a nominal fee «•!
approximately ten dollars, carry with them all the privileges and im
munities of corporate sanction. This not only includes the vital benefit o(
tax-exemption, but makes the officers and members of the terroristic organ
izations immune to suits for damages. These charters, moreover, cony
monly confer upon the corporation the right to establish “subordinate
lodges” throughout the United States and its territories. In addition, thf
Bureau of Internal Revenue, of the United States Treasury Department,
generally accepts the states’ classification of such corporate terrorism ai
non-profit enterprise, and exempts these groups from payment of Federal
corporate taxes. Thus we have a complete demonstration of the complicity
of the Government of the United States in fostering private terrorist ii
agents of genocide.

While the number of genocidal bands enjoying the corporate sanction
and legal authorization of Federal and state governments is legion, th t
following list will serve to indicate some of the most notorious:

1. Original Southern Klans, Inc. (Georgia)

2. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Florida, Inc.

3. Federated Klans of Alabama, Inc.

4. Knights of the Kavaliers, Inc. (Virginia)

5. United Sons of Dixie, Inc. (Tennessee)

6. American Shores Patrol, Inc. (Virginia)

7. American Keystone Society, Inc. (Pennsylvania)

8. The Christian American, Inc. (Texas)

9. The Fact Finders, Inc. (Georgia)

10. Fight for Free Enterprise, Inc. (Texas)

11. Free White Americans, Inc. (Tennessee)

12. Mason-Dixon Society, Inc. (Kentucky)

13. We, the People, Inc. (Georgia)

14. Vigilantes, Inc. (Georgia)

15. Veterans and Patriots Federation of Labor, Inc. (Tennessee)

16. Order of American Patriots, Inc. (Texas)

17. Southern Committee to Uphold the Constitution, Inc. (Texas)

18. The Patrick Henrys, Inc. (Georgia)

19. Southern States Industrial Council, Inc. (Tennessee)

20. National Small Businessmen’s Association, Inc. (Michigan)

THE EVIDENCE

*59

Typical of the dangerous and murderous venom carried on by such
Llante organization! is that detailed by the confidential
(.led to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau
2 Investigation by V* agent Stetson Kennedy. His reports concern
Practice pogroms” against Negroes by the Atlanta, Georgia, Ku Klux

K Mr. Kennedy writes that these reports, which have been buried by the
ill. ial agencies, reveal the following:

, That the Ku Klux Klan of Atlanta, Georgia, has brought virtuaUy every

ilt. Rian; to which Grand Dragon Samuel G gg every

”w? maintains a dosed shop among Atlanta’,

. 1 , drivers— that it is necessary to join the Klan to get a ,o

That pracrice mobiliMtions hav^been^condmited

limning on March 7 > * 94 ^? w n , r 1 Roner at Klavern 297

lorn Adam. Klavern art ; to Hated ^"^idT,!' Mothers in

-tings “All faithful brothers arise : and come » he a bllsims!

, ,irry pistols, blackjacks, knives and brassknuckles wh g g
Imsiness.”

I r.leral Government warehouse, asked y Klansmen WO uld rap Cul-
il.r Klan to steal the weapons. He suggested that “ansmen^ k £ that

1-1 r wl». r. "Any

1 ul pepper had been roDoea * „ information was

.hmg that the 0 f j ustice but instead of being dis-

JbiSLn^^^

l-W example, Five Points ,n the i eenmr • Roek .» clifi

l„wn,” while the suburb of Buckhead IS ret r f j to only by his

Vi.tur of the telephonic conversations, while his office

in the wall." Klan members identify themselves b,

Klan support, promised to give tne ivian

i6o

GENOCIDE

crnor^Herman t'^ T **“ miliU > and that his son > th ^ incumbent ftt
father’s pSsesI^ ffi ** ** he WOuld kee P a11 A

ex^d/nf 1 ?! 1 A r7? n Patte r D C ° Uld be regarded as an amu,,,,.
example of delayed adolescence if it did not so often erupt into violent

Mir° r^ dlrCCted a u gC 7 3gainSt tHe Negr0 ‘ Ic is common Amen.,,,
practice to deputize such people as police officers when a posse or „„,l

is called together to apprehend a fleeing Negro whom some KknJw,

ther person, has decided to charge with “rape.” Thus many Nr,

for “rtT? m er , ^ WhC " Sh0C by de P ucized mer »bers of such mi,
crime S 3rreSt ‘ THOSC depUti2ed are almost uniformly freed of ,,,

bofhl^l gUmb ; e r P,C n de r atC f ° r SOmething to do, impoverish, r
both mentally and physically by the doctrines and practices of wl.,.,

Icfk^nT ar V USC ? Ptlble t0 incitation to lynching, particularly when ih
act is endowed with civic virtue, with an aura of protecting all tli.it „

wittouuLn I' P T‘ Th r ^ additi ° n t0 the thousands murdci,
without benefit of record, 534 Negroes have been lynched by mobs b,

Mississippi between 1882 and 1950, 491 in Georgia, 35. i n Texas ,

in Louisiana, 299 ,n Alabama, 256 in Florida, 226 in Arkansas, and JJJ

because thT' Uy , n ° . 0ne has ever been punished for such a cri„,

because the courts and police collaborate with it. Such people as M,

ennedy has described have been incited to lynch some 3,436 knmv,

fc h E££ , .“ J 1950 “ d

In a letter to Governor Battle of Virginia, asking clemency for Ih,

oSn" e ,i"»Th ,he S0U "’ em C0 " f T nCC Fund of New

Orleans stated There is a rape complex in the South which leads 1,

aTa'n Tns'Z't V b^Tx/ 0 ^ SOmehow mterprc.ol

Pens P S ? Ut ^ rn Womanhood.” Basing itself on United Statw
Census Figures, the Conference concluded that “The death penalty f,„

” P n !! a r3 “ P enak y- a « oppressive bludgeon used almost exclusive!,

S in ffie S f r ° eS c u Uth '” * Cked governm cnt figures showing
(1) m the thirteen Southern states, during the period 1938-48, fiber,,

regio “ fo e r re t he CCUt r T 35 ° PP0Sed t0 187 NegrOCS - ^ In the sa,llt

47?Neime h 1^™/ ^ WCre eXecuted for murder wl.il,

475 -Negroes were executed.

The Dixiecrats

, haS ^ S3me kind of disagreements as to how to accom
Phsh tbe deSlrcd md as an y other collective endeavor. This is true „|

24) StatiSti “ fr ° m ,ht dcpanment of and Research, Tuskegee Institute, Alabanw

THE EVIDENCE

l6l

llir conspiracy of monopoly with the state and Federal governments to
••llu t genocidal violence against the Negro people. It is a conspiracy well
Synchronized and well meshed on all of its several levels but not perfectly
fci It became less perfect after World War II when the Negro people
demonstrated a renewed, vital determination to improve their conditions
•in I erase their infamous oppression.

So it was that in 1946 a disagreement arose as to the most practical
Min hod of maintaining the oppression of the Negro people. One wing
nl the conspiracy, whose titular head was President Truman, felt that
n»f;nizance should be taken of the widespread international shock and
diMiiay that was increasingly greeting the American treatment of Amer-
!• uns on the basis of race. It was felt that some obeisance should be made
i" international opinion, since American professions of the sacredness of
'!« individual, the right of free voting, the equality of races, and the
•I I vantages of the two-party system, were impeached by the omnipresent
American oppression of other Americans. Defense of the sacredness of the
individual sounded hollow in the face of wholesale murder of American
individuals on the basis of race. Mass violence to prevent Americans from
• •I mg at home because of their race somehow impeached State Depart-
ment propaganda for free elections abroad. Arguments concerning the
virtues of the two party system were jeopardized by the fact that the two
main American parties had identical programs and because only one
1 my was allowed in an important section of the United States.

Thus one part of the conspiracy wanted to have the freedom of ma-
neuver which would permit it to oppress the Negro people while pro-
k.ssing that genocide against the Negro people in the United States was
i 1 1 a dually decreasing. It wished to proclaim that its members were cog-
11 1 /ant of the problem and were solving it through the “slow but sure
methods of democracy/'

The other wing, the triumphant wing known as the Dixiecrats, wanted
10 persist in the older, straightforward and unabashed methods of oppres-
sion. It feared any appearance of concession as dangerous. We must not,
us members said, even appear to dilute the old fashioned, time-tested,
American” principles of white supremacy. To indulge in demagogic
' * incessions, they said, even though we know they are demagogic, is to
11m the risk of Negroes and whites believing what you pretend to
believe. The national scene is basic. If they believe abroad in the equality
of races, the solution is not for us to adopt this un-American principle
of race equality but for them to adopt the white supremacy of “true
Americanism.” So ran the arguments of the Dixiecrats, the victors in
ibis dispute between the temporary factions of this conspiracy.

The disagreement within the conspiracy over tactics began on Decem-
ber 5, 1946 when the President appointed fifteen citizens to examine the

i6a

GENOCIDE

state of civil liberties in the United States. Inevitably the major them*
of the resulting report, published in October 1947 under the title T» 1
Secure These Rights, was the segregation, discrimination, disfrandf*.
ment and murder practiced against the Negro people. Although [it
report was an apologia, seeking to minimize this historic, institutional!*
crime against the Negro people, yet the crime was so monstrous, *.
overwhelming, so widespread, and, above all, so incontestably an iiuli*
putable fact, that much of the report was forced to deal with the mm.
oppression of Americans on the score of race.

The report was undertaken with an eye to foreign opinion. This |i
revealed in a letter from Dean Acheson, then Acting Secretary of Siai.
to the Fair Employment Practice Committee (since abolished) on Mm
8, 1946, which read in part:

• • • the existence of discrimination against minority groups in this count!*
has an adverse effect upon our relations with other countries. We arc i»

minded over and over by some foreign newspapers and spokesmen, that

treatment of various minorities leaves much to be desired. While somelim, .
these pronouncements are exaggerated and unjustified, they all too frequcmU
point with accuracy to some form of discrimination because of race, crew]
color or national origin. Frequently we find it next to impossible to form.,
late a satisfactory answer to our critics in other countries; the gap between

the thing we stand for in principle and the facts of a particular situation

be too wide to be bridged. An atmosphere of suspicion and resentment in »
country over the way a minority is being treated in the United States .
formidable obstacle to the development of mutual understanding and mm
between the two countries. We will have better international relations when
these reasons for suspicion and resentment have been removed. . . .” 2B

The gap between the thing we stand for in principle and the facts <il ^
a particular situation” has widened immensely since Dean Acheson wroii
these words. The situation concerning the Negro people in the United
States has consistently worsened since the death of President Roosevelt
Even then it possessed the same basic elements it does today. One reason I
for the steady deterioration of the plight of the Negro people in il..
United States was the victorious “fight” of the Dixiecrats against mr.,
ures, apparently proposed for demagogic purposes by their fellow-con
spirators, providing for a federal law against lynching, abolition of .In
poll tax, the end of segregation and discrimination, the creation of a Fol
eral fair employment practices committee, and the strengthening of .In
Department of Justice to enforce the nation’s laws in the South.

These measures were recommended by the President’s Committee on
Civil Rights in 1947-that the United States Government protect it citizen.,
from extra-legal hanging, that Americans be allowed to vote without pav

25) To Secure These Rights, p. 146.

THE EVIDENCE

i 6 3

lily, for the privilege, that all Americans be allowed to live together re-
^11 dless of race, and that all Americans be allowed to work regardless
nl color. Four years later, not one of these recommendations has been
nucted into law.

These recommendations provided planks for both the Republican and
I >nnocratic parties seeking the very considerable northern Negro vote
mi 1948. Although never fought for, never really supported and never
passed, the very mention of these proposals was enough to bring about
1 lie formation of the Dixiecrats, dissident Tory Democrats of the South,
whose aim and accomplishment was to blackmail President Truman out
of any idea he may or may not have had of vigorous support of these
measures. Thus one faction of the conspiracy brought pressure on the
other to retain the traditional methods of oppressing the Negro.

The Dixiecrat movement is significant in that as late as 1948 a political
party of naked racism, founded on the postulate that some Americans
were to enjoy rights and privileges denied other Americans, ran candidates
lor the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the United States, and although
nflicially on the ballot in few states polled some million and a half votes.
Its policy was blatant white supremacy. Its ideology contained the con-
tain threat of violence. It was organized around the reactionary core
ol the Democratic Party in the South. Virtually all of its public docu-
ments, the addresses of its candidates and their proponents — many made
over the radio and all made publicly — incited to violence, directly or
indirectly, against the Negro people.

The Dixiecrat movement is significant in that its campaign documents
frequently denied the very humanity of the Negro people and often said
that violence would result if they were permitted the civil rights which
the Constitution guarantees them.

Here the conspiracy, or a segment of it, against the Negro people came
blatantly into the open. There was no attempt at denial. There was only
justification It is important because the state Democratic parties of
Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina, organizations almost identical
as to personnel with the governments in these three states, openly con-
certed to deny the Negro people their rights. The action of these states,
through their Democratic parties, had the result of sabotaging on a
national scale the development of even mere maneuvers in the direction
of Negro rights.

The Dixiecrats, formally calling themselves States’ Rights Democrats,
held a political convention in Houston, Texas, on August 11, 1948. They
nominated J. Strom Thurmond, then Governor of South Carolina, as
their candidate for President. Fielding L. Wright, the Governor of
Mississippi who insisted on the legal murder of Willie McGee for a crime
he never committed, w?' nominated for Vice-President of the United

GENOCIDE

164

States. From the first the Dixiecrat campaign maintained that progfl
r race-equality were un-American plots of the Kremlin

The tenor of the Dixiecrat campaign may be learned from this excel*
from a basic campaign document: 1

T not equal. Food ^wilUn.WoThott ?"S

dry up a cow. They are not P n,„l ™a 7 a da y s work will

interests of both are to be served Cold ^ equa ^ y ’ ** thc 1,1 1

notojoalTho, „ Z£. 712 “ ^ -* «

I 1 c theory °f equality is a communistic theory. It reduces all to I 1
level. From a racial standpoint, the practical effect of "

snis z±^ - sste

Another typical quotation threatened violence-

And this quotation demonstrates their views concerning the Netrm’i
competence, in relation to the poll tax: ° ^ *

r r “

constitution has been fashioned to exclude^nTSeTof ° f | g °° dS ‘ HlS
on his part. For this reason the n^l A Y .° f voIuntar y cooperatfc.i,

will nnv„ vo“„,rf;5 °'„" d K “” *.*" **"■«

unwilling, non-supporters of the government from' I P ? SCreens ll "
of the government.” 28 g nC t m tile voluntary supportn.

As to segregation, the handbook says:

r*r&3£s ■sv-

Rights^ Dcmocrats^ampa^gn^^Commhfee^Headmunefs^ 0 ^" P^ lished by National Stair,'
sissippi, p. 5I . ^ * ommittee, Headquarters, He.delberg Hotel, Jackson, Mr.

27) Ibid., p. 52.

28) 7 &V., pp. 52, 53,

29) 7£/<7., p. 54.

THE EVIDENCE

165

mil the like and to force the negro to ride in a Jim Crow car.

“The charge of injustice will not bear close examination. White people
have a right to engage in business and deal with white people only. Negroes
have a right to engage in business and to deal with negroes only. There is
no obligation on a white man to spend his money providing public accom-
modations for negfoes. There is no obligation on negroes to spend their
money providing public accommodations for white people.” 30

Governor Frank M. Dixon of Alabama, speaking in favor of Thur-

And further:

“But, it may be said, that it is unjust to refuse the negro public accom-
modations such as hotels, cafes, taxicabs, theaters, barber shops, beauty parlors
mond and Wright, said in a keynote address of the States’ Rights Demo-
tratic Conference at Birmingham, Alabama, July 17, 1948 :

“This vicious program means to eliminate all differences, all separation
between black and white. It so declares itself, in words. It means to create a
great melting pot of the South, which white and Negroes intermingled so-
• wily, politically, economically. It means to reduce us to the status of a
mongrel, inferior race, mixed in blood, our Anglo-Saxon heritage a mockery;
lo crush with imprisonment our leadership, and thereby kill our hopes, our
ttNpirations, our future and the future of our children.” 31

Governor Thurmond, candidate for President of the United States,
declared that employment without discrimination as to race as envi-
roned in the proposal for a fair employment practices commission
"was patterned after a Russian law written by Joseph Stalin about 1930,
icferred to in Russia as Stalin’s ‘All-Races Law.’ . . . The FEPC is
admirably suited to the Russian form of government. ... It will not
work in free America or in any free country where the dignity and
worth of the individual is respected.” He described the proposed anti-
lynching law as tyranny and asked, “What could be more un-American?”
I Ie particularly decried proposals to end jim crow in the American
.irmed forces. He said there were people “willing to break down the
separation of the races in the armed forces, even at the sacrifice of the
morale of the soldiers and the safety of the country itself, against the
.id vice of the military leaders charged with the defense of the nation.
Our boys in the service should not be subjected to an unnecessary
hazard. The American people do not want their sons placed in such a
position when the military leaders say it is unsafe, simply to allow
politicians of this country to appeal to bloc votes.” 32

While the Dixiecrat movement did not elect its candidates — it never
seriously intended to — it was completely successful. It succeeded in its
purpose which was to return President Truman, the Democratic Party,

30) Ibid., p. 55.

31) Ibid., pp. 43, 44.

32) Ibid., pp. 14, 15-

1 66

GENOCIDE

and other of its fellow conspirators, to the traditional method of opprci* *
ing the Negro people. It was a mock battle, a division of responsibility
within the conspiracy. The Dixiecrat’s function was to cushion the con
spiracy’s failure to proceed along the lines the President’s Commit u#
suggested. It built up seeming pressure against Congress, the Supmm
Court, the President, and all three made use of it. The Supreme Con"
continued in the main as it had for a half century, finding reasons why
the supreme law of the land, the Constitution of the United Statn,
should not be obeyed. Congress failed definitely to pass any of t
proposals providing for civil rights for Negroes. And the President
despite his great power and great obligations under the Constitution,
did nothing.

The President’s lack of sincerity is revealed in an interview he gavr
Arthur Krock, printed in the New Yor\ Times of February 15, 195O1
The interview concerned the President’s views about the proposed Fan
Employment Practice Commission (which was later gutted in the Hou*r
of Representatives and filibustered to death in the Senate). The quc»
tions below are by Krock and the answers by Truman.

“Q. You favor* the Fair Employment Practice Commission legislation. . . *
You know intimately the condition of the Negro race and the limitations ol
its capacity to fill certain kinds of employment. Many believe that education
will be required before an F.E.P.C. could operate even on a voluntary bail*
Why then is it desirable in mandatory form, requiring that the burden 0!
proof be on the employer?

A. The President would not support or continue to support any legislation
which deprived a citizen of the right to run his own business , for which t/iiii
citizen was responsible, as he thought best . The President does not agree that
the Administration’s F.E.P.C. legislation would have any such result. If h<
thought so, he would not be for it, and under him it will not be so admin
istered.” (Italics ours.)

The sham nature of the “fight” between Truman and the Dixiecram
was further proven by the swift restoration of good relationships aft* 1
the 1948 election. There was no ill feeling. The Alsop brothers, in ;t
column in the New York Herald Tribune on January 12, 1951, notol
that Truman had reconciled the Dixiecrats, if such reconciliation wetr
indeed needed, with “a gentle, emollient shower of collectorships, judge
ships and the like that has caused the memory of past hard feelings to
grow dim.” •

Victor Perlo, in writing of the Krock interview with Truman on the
FEPC, comments:

“The President accepts without question the imperialist, chauvinist theories
of the ‘racial inferiority’ of the Negro people. He makes clear that he will do
nothing to interfere with monopoly capital acting in accord with these theoric*
and deriving the superprofits it does therefrom. He exposes his true purpose,

THE EVIDENCE

167

t£. zzjszLttZ

In 1 lie United States. 33

Segregation continues unabated under Truman :

"The 'normal' pattern of rogation and
„..l in the civilian government a linger to

STE S STSEMla again, die Negro people, of legal

lynching of Negroes North and South.

The Guilt of the Government of the United States

Central in the the conspiracy to commit genocide against *e Negro
1 f rk. iTnlterl States is the Government of the United state

1:: 1 ■«*

live sanction of the Federal Government, the i^nld

widespread, institutionalized commission of the crime of genocute ’ woul
I, impossible. We maintain that in permitting Moral offi cmMrom
, llP president of the United States to members of the Supreme Uourt an
I X from the highest law enforcement officers to the bwest violate

SlfoS 1 Con'Stntion of die ^
Sis results in violation of the Genocide Convention and of the Charter

° We hattataffied, too, that monopoly capital is the prime mo-in
|lus cons piracy to commit genocide because of the four billion dollars it
I rives annually from it, and because of the political and economic con-
maintahL through ir. W. have alleged fha. ktoj" “

,1 Tinned States is the creature of this monopoly capital, lhis is
,1, linitively proved b, .he fac. that almost every key , governnumt^post m
,l„. fabulously lucrative mobilization for war is held by WaU Street
itesematives. The holders of these posts control the economic life of
rum S Sates through controlling the Government of the United
Ine^thTusibothfor their own profit. There was a time when
W ill Street governed by pressure and influence. It now governs direc y.
W .ll Street & and the United States Government are identical as to per-
“ far as the Government’s most powerful
I |, is i s proved by the following list, prepared by the Labor Resear
Association, of Wall Street officers in key government positions.

$ 3 ) American Imperialism, p. 93*

< 4 ) Ibid., pp. Qi < 92.

i68

GENOCIDE

Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization : Charles E. Wilson, formed)
president of General Electric Co. and director of Guaranty Trust Co., •
Morgan bank. Wilson has retired from GE on a pension of $62,000 a yon
He has powers greater than any official except the President in time of pencil
and some conservative commentators claim his powers are even greater.

Secretary of the Navy : Francis P. Matthews, chairman of board of Securt
ties Acceptance Corp., Omaha; former director Northwestern Bell Telephone
Co.; director Central National Insurance Co. of Omaha.

Secretary of Defense: General George C. Marshall, director of Pan-Amn
ican World Airways, a Morgan company, since replaced by:

Under-Secretary of Defense : Robert A. Lovett, partner in Brown Brolherii
Harriman & Co., leading New York investment house; director Union Pacifl*|
and other railroads, and New York Life Insurance Co.

Secretary of the Air Force: Thomas K. Finletter, partner in Coudert Bfl"*
a law firm which has represented Franco Spain in the U.S.; director Amerii all
Machine & Metals, Inc.; long advocate of a huge expansion in military and
naval aircraft construction.

Co-ordinator of Economic Mobilization (preceding Wilson): W. Stuani
Symington, later chairman of National Security Resources Board, now chall
man Reconstruction Finance Corporation which finances private plant expan-
sion. Symington had previously been president of Colonial Radio Corp., prcil
dent of Rustless Iron & Steel Co., and president and chairman of Emerson
Electric Mfg. Co.

Secretary of Commerce: Charles Sawyer, corporation lawyer of Cincinnati,
formerly of the law firm representing Procter & Gamble Co.; director ut
American Thermos Bottle Co., Union Central Life Insurance Co., and lit*
Crosley Co.

Chairman Defense Production Administration: William Henry Harrison,
former president, International Telephone & Telegraph Corp., a Morgan
monopoly. Harrison was also chairman of the Federal Telephone & Radio
Corp. and of International Standard Electric Corp., I.T.&T. subsidiaries.

Special Assistant to C. E. Wilson in Office of Defense Mobilization: Sidnuv
J. Weinberg, senior partner in Goldman, Sachs & Co., one of Wall Strcn h
leading firms; director of General Electric Co., B. F. Goodrich Co., General
Foods Corp., Continental Can Co., General Cigar Co., McKesson & Robbing
Sears Roebuck & Co., National Dairy Products Corp., and other corporations.
Weinberg has been one of the chief Wall Streeters engaged in recruiting big
businessmen to take government posts; many are from corporations of whi* l«
he is a director. (Recently resigned after finishing his recruiting.)

Assistant to C. E, Wilson in Office of Defense Mobilization : Genekai
Lucius D. Clay, chairman of Continental Can Co., director Lehman Corp.
and Newmont Mining Corp. (Morgan), largest copper-mining investment
company with large holdings in African mines as well as in Phelps-Dodgr
Corp. and KennecGtt Copper Corp. (Clay resigned on March 30 to return
to the Continental Can Co., but he will still act as a “consultant.”)

Adviser on Public Relations in Office of Defense Mobilization: W. Howaiu*
Chase, director of public relations of General Foods Corp.

Assistant to Director for Materials, ODM: Fred Searls, Jr., president
Newmont Mining Co. (Although Searls resigned recently, his influence exerted
through others still dominates policy relating to copper and other metals.)

Deputy Administrator for Staff Services: Edwin T. Gibson, vice-president

THE EVIDENCE

169

Director, Machinery Division NPA: P

I W. Bliss Co., allocates machine tools, the basic equipment tor

"K Division, W*Uu»

Ifcringfield Tire Co., subsidiary of Goodyear Tire le Robber Co,

l»'"'“'s nranufactming ; company in .U& w ^ Jssistant ,

Division of Bethlehem S.eel Corp, second larges,
itrrl company in the country. Bruce K. Brown.

’’£1 ^SS-lSSSr* Transport Co, coot, oiled b, Standard
Oil of Indiana. n . p IIFFORD B. McManus

»■ co— >•» «

w - Co "' ,o ' , ■ fonn "''

'“.S'lr'oT

Motion Picture Association of America. In the latter position
,.S czar of the film industry • p i Services Division, OP'

„ """‘l ^ Sprague Steamship Ct

SZLS’Ztk of Boston and Libert, Mu.ua, ta-. Co^ F(x
"an” 5S. ££* York Board of Trad

. Bradstreet, Inc, former dial, man, York Boardof „

jkSwSS “

— — *

Wcstinghou^Eiectrm Supply Co ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ F , Duu

diSSmernL'nal Nickel C* of

»“a k „5 S«n,2=;n |

law firm representing Morg , which' backed Hitler in Germany s

*-> * s “» L

'Tm * Assismt *ni mi,' HOU £

i 7 ° GENOCIDE

Guaranty Trust Co. of New York (a Morgan Bank), Illinois Central KH
Western Union Telegraph Co. and many other railroad and shipping com
panies.

Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs: William L. Thorp, ill
rector. General Public Utilities Corp., formerly trustee, Associated Gas ami
Electric Corp., director Associated Electric Co. and United Coach Co.

Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs: George V. Perkins, vii<
president, Merck & Co., chemical company related to Nazi firm of sanw
name; formerly director, City Bank Farmers Trust Co., leading Wall Strtfl
bank.

Director of Policy Planning Staff of State Department: Paul H. Nit**,
former vice-president, Dillon Read & Co., vice-president and director, U.S
Commercial Co., director, Rubber Development Co.; through his family ami
Dillon Read, closely connected with German cartelists and with Not 1 1 .
German Lloyd interests.

Ambassador to Great Britain: Walter S. Gifford (replacing Lewis W
Douglas, chairman of Mutual Life Insurance Co. and director of American
Cyanamid Co., who resigned in September, 1950), former chairman, American
Telephone and Telegraph Co., director, U.S. Steel Corp., First National Bank
of Nfew York, main bank in the Morgan-First National financial interest group

These wealthy men, the most powerful in the country and repr*
senting a financial community with assets of more than one hundred
and forty-seven billions of dollars, create the political climate prevailing
in Washington. They equate their profit with the nation’s welfare. Then
ideas, policies and political concepts dominate the government. They
influence the President, put a stamp upon the Supreme Court, have 1
voice in naming its membership, and control Congress. They are one
reason, and a powerful one, that President Truman refuses to create n
Fair Employment Practices Commission by executive order, as President
Roosevelt did. They are one of the reasons he refuses to use his clcai
power as commander-in-chief of the armed forces to end segregation,
discrimination and jim crow in the Army, Navy and Marine Corp'
of the United States. Both steps would go far to implement the spirit
and the fact of the Fourteenth Amendment he is sworn to uphold. Tin-
political climate these monopolists generate contributes to an atmosphnr
in which the Supreme Court upholds the poll tax and refuses to give the
due process of law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to inn©
cent Negroes sentenced to death after being framed by venal court*.
They dominate a Congress which has refused to pass a single law return
ing to those millions of United States citizens who are Negroes tin
inalienable rights which are theirs under the Constitution; a Congrcv,
which in its direct government of the District of Columbia*has made tin
United States capital notorious for segregation, discrimination and op-
pression on the basis of race.

Their control is equally powerful in the several states. Only recently

[ HE EVIDENCE

171

tlir National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ad-
<li rssed a plea to the U.S. Steel Corporation and its Alabama subsidiary,

1 In- Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, to stop the local and state poltce-
imouraged violence against Negroes in Birmingham, Alabama. Thus,

,1 private corporation was the acknowledged master of the state. The
U.S. Steel Company replied that the matter should more “properly
I" taken up with its local subsidiary!

A Plea of Guilty

The genocidal policies of the Government of the United States against
tlir Negro people of the United States, against its own citizens, are
m evident that the government itself is forced to acknowledge them.
The President’s Committee on Civil Rights issued a report in 1947 that
was a plea of guilty and an admission of crime. Referring to the degra-
• lat ion that envelops American society which permits violence and is-
1 1 1 urination on a basis of race, the committee asserts:

"Where the administration of justice is discriminatory, no man can be sure

..I security Where a- society permits private and arbitrary violence tobe

1 lime to its members, its own integrity is inevitably corrupted It cannot permit
human beings to be imprisoned or killed in the absence of due process of law
without degrading its entire fabric .” 3 ' 1

The Report admits state complicity in lynching:

“Punishment of lynchers is not accepted as the responsibility of state or
Ideal governments. . . . Frequently state officials participate in the enm
actively or passively .” 30

The report does not say that frequently federal officials “participate
in the crime actively or passively” through failing to apply the Four-
1. rnth and Fifteenth Amendments which would prevent the crime, but
,1 does add, “Federal efforts to punish the crime are resisted. Punish-
ment of crime is often resisted by its perpetrators. Such resistance, how-
, ver, is not usually regarded as a reason for not attempting punishment.

The Report admits the charges in our indictment. It admits that
lynching is genocidal — that it is intended to repress an entire peop e.

“The almost complete immunity from punishment enjoyed by lynchers is
merely a striking form of the broad and general immunity from P«" ish “ en
, 1 1 joyed by whites in many communities for less extreme offenses against
Negroes. Moreover, lynching is the ultimate threat by which his in:
latus is driven home to the Negro.

It admits “killing members of the group” on the basis of race:

~H) To Secure These Rights, Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, p. 6 .

36) Ibid., p. 23.

37) Ibid., p. 24.

GENOCIDE

172

“As a terrorist device, it reinforces all the other disabilities placed upon him

It admits “serious mental harm to members of the group” on the bsl
or race: r "

the know^eSe 0 rVr Chin? alW3yS h ? gS ° Ver the head of the Southe ™ Negro,
. iSSjflSS?. m,SmtCr P reted word or action can lead to his death 1

This official plea of guilty admits state responsibility and guilt:

conduct a ' S0 TP?"' m ,° re WldeS P read and var ‘ed forms of official mil
conduct. These include violent physical attacks by police officers on n.n„

and bruT^^'aimT 5 ’ "* ° f methods t0 ext0rt confession.,

and brutality against prisoners. . . . Much of the illegal action which wi

i°:±virr n ? the commkKe - «««* * the .oSt™;

evidence of lawless police action against whites and Negroes alike bl
ihe dommant pattern is that of race prejudice" (italics ours) . 1

n ! : 1 gar , H °r r < referred > ln his testimony before the Committee to «

ceraTed wlln W ' sdd ° m that a °r woman was ffiJ

cerated who was not given a severe beating, which started off with a nisiol

communities') "‘The fi ^ 3 / u ^r hose.” (This is standard practice in man
r,,^Tw‘ k , The , files ° f the Department” (the federal Department of
r Ce ik abOUnd 7 Uh c , v,dence °< ille S al offi cial action in southern states. . . /'

( t nothing is done about it.) “We are convinced . . . that the incidence ol

added. ) fUta lty " disturbin g’y hi gh” 39 (Words in parenthew,

Gradualism

The Report of the President’s Committee would have been more effee-
tive if something had been done about it. Congress, as we have not),
failed to enact any of its recommendations into law, failed to give tlir
_egro that equality before the law to which he is entitled by the term,
the Fourteenth Amendment and the United Nations Charter. Tin
resident did not fight for his Committee’s proposals, ‘despite his oath .,!
office wearing to uphold the Constitution. He did not even put into
effect those which were completely in his power.

Such failures are often excused by the theory of “gradualism.” '11, 1,
concept of gradual, evolutionary improvement of the plight of the Negm
peopk has been held in the United States for more than three hundred
years but increasingly Negroes are subject to mass murder, segregation
and discrimination t on the basis of race. Gradualism flourished panic

DroLi U d n ? g 1* tW ° T drGd yCarS and m ° re ° f Slaver y- Then « w#u
proposed to eliminate slavery “gradually,” usually by colonizing slave.

elsewhere very gradually, but the institution, constantly increasing in

size and power, was not extirpated until the Civil War when it w.„

done suddenly rather than gradually.

38) Ibid,, p. 25.

39) Ibid., pp. 25, 26, 27.

THE EVIDENCE 173

We Negro petitioners have grown a little impatient with this three-
l*undred-year-old theory. We still suffer from genocide, and while gradual-
lun may be attractive to academicians, politicians, statisticians, it is a good
ilr.il less so to us. There were those who hailed the Report of the Presi-
•hits Committee “as a great step forward.’’ We cannot forbear from
| "Mil ting out, however, that most of the crimes of which we here complain
"•« urred after the President’s report, that the Martinsville Seven were
1 1 lied after it, that Willie McGee was murdered after it, that segregation,

• li ’.crimination and oppression continued after it and are continuing. The

• mil) is the entire Negro people of the United States are increasingly
mi 1 1 l uring from genocide.

I wen as we write this petition for relief, the killings go on day by day
•ml hour by hour. During the month of May, 1951, for example, the
l"»lice department of Columbus, Georgia, ushered in that month by a
midnight orgy of violence against scores of Negroes, many of them sol-
dins of the United States. Police invaded Negro restaurants and bars

• •I die Georgia city, beating hundreds of diners indiscriminately, seriously
Injuring one hundred, many of whom were pistol-whipped and clubbed
Into unconsciousness.

Twenty-four hours later, a patrolman of Cheraw, South Carolina, took
» hi tha Johnson, a Negro furniture worker, from the factory in which
lir worked and beat him so badly in the local jail that Johnson lost one
fyr and is threatened with blindness in the other.

Not long later and not far away in the South Carolina town of Beaufort,
•mith Harvey was sentenced to death for defending himself against a
mob of white hoodlums who had demanded that Harvey “get them some
Negro woman.”

On May 6, Ku Klux Klansmen of Birmingham, Alabama, wearing the
regalia of their order, burned two Negro homes because their owners had
moved from the Negro ghetto. Two weeks later, in neighboring Fair-
liuld, four hundred Negro families were made homeless when fire de-
partments called to extinguish the fire destroying their homes instead
Mood idly by.

And also in May and also in Georgia, Sheriff Thomas Bragg of Haw-
I insville shot and killed two soldiers of the United States while the)
were his manaefed prisoners. The soldiers were Negroes.

In Detroit, Michigan, Charles Gordy, Sr. was sentenced to life im
prisonment for defending his son and his home from an illegal attacl
of police who later machine-gunned the Gordy residence.

And Edward Honeycutt in Louisiana was executed in that state’
portable electric chair on the charge of “rape.”

And in Norfolk, Virginia, on May 28, the Reverend Joseph Mann wa
burned to death by a mob, which drenched his clothing in gasoline befor

GENOCIDE

174

igniting them, for preaching a sermon against segregation.

And in New York on the same day Henry Fields was shot to death In
patrolman Samuel Appelbaum after a minor traffic accident. Gram 1
juries twice failed to indict the white police officer, despite widespread
public protest.

In Cicero, Illinois, a “mob” under the very eyes of police, burned ami
looted the home of the first Negro to move into a housing development
In nearby Chicago, one of the nation’s outstanding chemists, a Ncgi"
received the same treatment — and to top this, was barred from the Uni""
League Club, although voted Chicago’s “Number One Citizen.”

And nothing is done about these crimes.

There have been reports— many of them. But nothing is done.

That is why we are tired of gradualism.

Jim Crow in the Armed Forces

Segregation and discrimination in the armed forces of the United Stan n,
a segregation which violates the Charter of the United Nations ami
results in genocide within the terms of the Genocide Convention, lmi
long been the avowed policy of the Federal Government. Under ilu
Constitution of the United States, the President is the commander m
chief of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. It is mandatory and bann
that his orders be obeyed. Now and again he has issued equivocal “orcln
to end discrimination and segregation in the armed forces. These “orders'
have been so consistently flouted and with such immunity from discipline
that it is generally thought the orders were not seriously meant to hi
obeyed. In fact, when the first such order was issued, Gen. Bradley, then
Chief of Staff, openly announced it would mean “no change” in tin
Army. Negro soldiers are still segregated into special units in the Army,
units usually used for labor and trucking. In the Navy and Marines,
Negroes are virtually always held to cooking and other menial task*.

“. . . the records show,” says the President’s Committee on Civil Rights,
“that the members of several minorities, fighting and dying for thr
survival of the nation in which they met bitter prejudice, found there wui.
discrimination against them even as they fell in battle.”

Since nothing concrete was done to- carry out the recommendations of
the President’s Committee the situation concerning “discrimination again m
them even as they fell in battle” continues to this day in Korea. Thin
good Marshall, special counsel for the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, found after an investigation in Koic.i
that members of segregated regiments of American Negro soldiers war
being court martialled and sentenced to prison in numbers so far exceed
ing those of white soldiers that there were ample grounds for believing
that the courts martial were on the basis of race rather than of condiui

THE EVIDENCE

*75

I battle. This in itself is an instance of “serious bodily or mental harm
Mi members of the group.’

As a result of these findings, and other protest, President Truman was
it ii red to commute the death sentence meted out Second Lieutenant Leon
filbert to twenty years in prison. Moreover American soldiers
luppened to be Negroes have been so often killed or beaten with im-
punity for no offense by peace officers in the South that it can be said o
I, urn a social pattern. The uniform of an American soldier receives no
u spect if its wearer is a Negro in the South, where he is the subject of
„ much discrimination, segregation and violence as if he were a cm lan.
On the subject of Negro GI Frameups, a survey issued by the Congress

(or Civil Rights, says:

"Other instances of brutality toward Negro troops in Korea include the

'"^On November 4, James Hicks reported in the Baltimore Afro-American
u 2 least ,T Neg o soldiers of the all-Negro 24th Infantry Regiment in
had been gfven the ‘Gilbert treatment.’ He reported more Negro
i \\ court-martialled on charges of misconduct before the enemy Hi
wrote of seeing convicted men in a train in South Japan under armed guard
|„. in ,r sent to S Army stockades. His story reported the spectacle made whe
Nn-ro GI prisoners arrived in Japan and were met by armed guards w
1 1 unied a semi-circle before their train door with drawn guns and marche
i l.r mm in columns of two to a waiting truck.

V On December 21, 1950 the New York Daily Worker reported the sem
irncing of GI M/Sgt. Paul Paulfrey to 20 years at hard labor for alleged

'"'•Th^NAACP News Report of November 16, 1950 revealed that letters
|„ m Negro GI troops in Korea begged the NAACP (the National Associa-
u,m for the Advancement of Colored People) to ‘investigate the mass perse
, „i ion’ of the men of the 24th Infantry Regiment. One letter from a Negro
Cl said . ‘We are being court-martialled and sentenced to prison for life

I, Ztr of us b g u, in groups of four’s nod

. OT sentenced to io years imprisonment complained. I don t think i naa
even break. ... It seems as though the Negroes are the only ones to get

‘ ^Th TAm'sterdam News of February 23, 1951, reported that investigations
„| U S Army practices in Korea and Japan by Thurgood Marshall, special
1 mmsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
would reveal the following:

1) That Army authorities are prosecuting a greater portion of Negro

soldiers than whites on charges of cowardice.

2) That far heavier sentences are imposed on Negroes and that o ty
eight white soldiers had been accused of violating the 75th Arti
War as compared with 60 Negro GI’s.

Marshall stated that the report of his findings filed with General Mac-
Arthur revealed the following:

GENOCIDE

176

J ) 3 2 Negroes and only two whites had been convicted for alleged infttfl
tion of Article of War 75. The white GI’s received sentences of 3 and 5 you*
Of 32 Negroes convicted, fifteen were sentenced to life, one (Lt. Gilbert) lit
death; one to 50 years and 15 from five to twenty-five years.

2) He had talked with about 70 enlisted men from every company iMll|
battery of the 24th Infantry Regiment and the 159th Field Artillery attach*)
to the 24th, and all believed that the conviction of Negro GI’s had bn 11
‘excessively harsh.’

“In spite of continued protests, the U.S. Army has shown no indication • 1
fundamentally altering its Jim-Crow policy toward Negro troops in Korea....""

The President’s Committee On Civil Rights in October 1947, it,\o!l
admitted the President’s “orders” against segregation were openly di»
regarded in the armed services.

“Within the services, studies made within the last year disclose that actU|l
experience has been out of keeping with the declarations of policy on «lii
crimination.

“In the Army, less than one Negro in 70 is commissioned, while thcrr i«
one white officer for approximately every seven white enlisted men. In i!u
Navy, there are only two Negro officers in a ratio of less than one to 10,000
Negro enlisted men; there are 58,571 white officers, or one for every seven
enlisted whites. The Marine Corps has 7,798 officers, none of whom is •
Negro, though there are 2,190 Negro enlisted men. Out of the 2,981 CoMI

Guard officers, one is a Negro; there are 910 Negro enlisted men. The

of white Coast Guard commissioned to enlisted personnel is approximately
one to six.

“Similarly in the enlisted grades, there is exceedingly high concentration
Negroes in the lowest ratings, particularly in the Navy, the Marine C01 1 •
and the Coast Guard. Almost 80 percent of the Negro sailors are serving
cooks, stewards and steward’s mates; less than two percent of the whites arr
assigned to duty in the same capacity. Almost 15 percent of all white enlist n I
marines are in the three highest grades; less than 2/2 percent of the Negm
marines fall in the same category. The disparities in the Coast Guard
similarly great. The difference in the Army is somewhat smaller, but Mill
significant. Less than nine percent of the Negro personnel are in the fun
three grades, while almost 16 percent of the whites hold these ranks.

“Many factors other than discrimination contribute to this result. Howcvn,
it is clear that discrimination is one of the major elements which keeps 1 1 m
services from attaining the objectives which they have set for themselves.

“The admission of minorities to service academies and other service school 1 *
is another area in \*hich the armed forces have enjoyed relatively little sin
cess in their efforts to eliminate discrimination. With regard to schools within
the services, the disparities indicate that selection for advanced training ii
doubtless often made on a color basis. As for the service academies, in tin
course of the last seventy-five years to Military Academy at West Point
admitted a total of only thirty-seven Negro cadets, while the Naval Academy
at Annapolis admitted only six. The Coast Guard Academy, while it select 1

40) A Survey of Major Developments in the Year 1950 With Respect to the Negro
People in the United States, pp. 6, 7, 8.

THE EVIDENCE

177

y».mts on the basis of open, competitive examinations w ‘ tho ^ re g ard “

L, has no knowledge of any Negro ever having been accepted. The
Lna- of Negroes from the service academies is unfortunate because
L„, that our officers are trained in an undemocratic environment and are
L|n] the opportunity to learn at an early stage in their service careers
C„ „f different races can work and fight together harmoniously.

Mate authorities promulgate the regulations concerning
lhocs and the formation of Negro units in the National Guard. M
K, d 0 not have Negro units; of those that do, all but three require
■li gation by regulation. Of thirty-four states answering on inquiry made by
! President’s Advisory Commission on Un^ersalTtaimng only

, the integration of Negroes with white units The Commission com

! ting on discrimination, observed that it considers hamful the policies

, , hr states that exclude Negroes from their National Guard units, ihe
j ,han components should be expanded to include all segments of our popu-
lljoi, without segregation or discrimination., Total defense requires p
■bUtion of all citizens in our defense forces.’

looking to the future, the Commission also found ^a some of he pres
practices of the armed forces would negate many of the benefits ot that
|ui.|Hised universal training program. Speaking of this P^ ogra ™ lt S ®* ' f y
r • . . it must provide equality of privilege and opportunity for all

those upon whom this obligation rests Neither in the tS ^

nor in the organization of any phase of this program, -hould there be
discrimination for or against any person or group because of >?|» rac £
class, national origin, or religion. Segregation or special P r ‘^ lege
any form should have no place in the program To permit hem would
nullify the important living lesson in citizenship which such training
can gwe. Nothing could be more tragic for the future attitude of our
people and for the unity of our nation, than a program in which our
Federal Government forced our young manhood to live for a period ' of
time in an atmosphere which emphasized or bred class or racial differ-

cnees ! ” 41

| 'he words we have emphasized are explicit admission of the genocidal

me of segregation. The fact is that for all their lives-not just a

hrriod of time” — the entire Negro people, not just a few-must live in
d,n United States. Because of the lamentable fact that nothing has been

1., „c to implement the report of the President’s Committee on Civil
|l iirhts, the discriminatory ratios cited above still maintain in the arme

1.. , ccs of the United States. Such segregation trains, encourages, and
mares for discrimination and violence on the basis of race. Not only

1 lors the segregation and discrimination in American armed forces author-
ized by the Government of the United States violate all the articles o
dm Charter of the United Nations which provide for “human rights
mil fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race . . . , ut
i„ addition it makes for genocide. It inevitably results in serious bodily
..1 mental harm to members of the group” when it does not actually result

41 ) To Secure These Rights, pp. 4 2 > 43 •

178

GENOCIDE

THE EVIDENCE

179

in “killing members of the group.” The higher ratio of imprisoning
and execution after courts martial among Negro soldiers as cotii|M» |
with white, as well as the cases cited above, proves this a fact.

The District of Columbia

Equally clear and indisputable is the complicity and guilt of the Urn
ernment of the United States in the genocide committed in the I >1 '
of Columbia, the nation’s capital. This is governed under the direct n<
thority of Congress. Here there can be no specious arguments <ilhH4
“States rights” or “separation of powers.” The nation’s capital is noiofU
for that segregation which inevitably leads to “killing members o(
group,” to “serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group/ *
“deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to ho
about its destruction in whole or in part.”

In Washington, D.C., Negroes are denied entry to most hospitals* tyi,
have previously listed typical instances of Negroes dying as the rc-.nl>
being refused admission to hospitals in Washington. The WasbrngM
ghettos, some of the worst in the country, are cesspools of disease 1
poverty, admittedly shortening the lives of those who live in ilin,
manifestly cases of “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions nl Ill
calculated to bring about its destruction in whole or in part.” Ami i|tt
segregation in Washington which bars Negroes from the best playground '
and parks, from decent living quarters, from restaurants, hotels uittl
places of entertainment, is a breeder of police violence against Nc^roHI
If Negroes as a matter of law are not fit for the normal privilcgr* nil
citizenship, then they are not entitled to humane treatment, accoiilm,l
to the apparent reasoning of Washington police.

Negro schools, segregated schools, are inferior to white schools |ffl
almost every respect, according to the report of the President’s Cominm
in 1947. Nothing has changed since then. White school buildings li.n
a capacity which is 27 percent greater than actual attendance. In Nr^o
schools enrollment exceeds capacity by 8 percent.

Negroes in Washington are being increasingly packed into a fifty
overcrowded slums. They are held and imprisoned there by the I- jj
device of the restrictive covenant which bars them from better p)a«e«
to live. In 1940, one-eighth of the white dwellings were substandard. Itn
40 percent of the dwellings occupied by Negroes were substandard.

Discrimination against Negroes in employment in the District .il
Columbia is general both by private concerns and by the United S(ui«
Government. Almost a quarter of the complaints brought before ib
FEPC in the fiscal year 1943-44 were brought by Negroes charging ili«
Federal Government with discrimination against them in the mattn
employment. Once employed by the government, a survey of one Guv

fiiurnt bureau indicated, it took a Negro employee seven times longer
, icc cive a promotion than was required for a white colleague doing
IIH l,ir work. An official of the District of Columbia was quoted as
fclari ncr “Negroes in the District of Columbia have no right to ask
, |„l.s°on a basis of merit.” In 1940, according to Government statistics
L quarters of the Negro workers in Washington, D.C., were employed
, domestics, laborers, or service workers. Only one-eighth of white
bilkers were so employed.

Ml hough sickness rates are higher among Negroes in Washington,

}t than among whites, four of its twelve private hospitals will not
Lit Negroes and the remainder admit only a few in segregated wa.ds.

,’| lc authority of the Government of the United States to end segrega-
14,01 and discrimination in Washington, D.C. is complete.

'in is its failure to use that authority.

The Panama Canal Zone

•Segregation has not been enforced by the states alone,” says the report
1 ,hc President’s Committee on Civil Rights. 42 “The Federal Govern-
has tolerated it even where it has full authority to eliminate it. We
l, ,v, already examined the situation in the armed forces. Another promi-
h* lit example is the record in the Panama Canal Zone.

| he Panama Canal Zone is completely under the authority of the
(ilivctnment of the United States. And in the Canal Zone exists the most

mlete and strictest system of segregation among its thousands ot

Mimloyees. White employees are known as “Gold employees and Negro
midoyees designated as “Silver Employees.” Under this system, separate
.,,,1 unequal facilities are maintained for Negroes, who hve in inferior
.ilver” dormitories, eat in inferior “Silver” restaurants, buy in inferior
Silver” commissaries, play in inferior “Silver” ^recreational establishments,
„„| receive vastly inferior “Silver” pay. All this Gold and Silver
• , negation is completely maintained by the Federal Government.

Other Governmental Discrimination

Discrimination permeates almost every facet and every activity of the
I, ,lcral Government. Thus the official Underwriting Manual of the
I , deral Housing Administration approves jim crow housing by warding
,, .ainst mortgage risks as a result of “inharmonious racial groups. The
Federal Housing Administration, moreover, continues to extend the bene-
liis of mortgage insurance without regard to whether those benefited
• . iwage in discrimination, according to a 1950 report of the American
I Jewish Congress and the National Association for the Advancement of

< olored People.

42) Pp. 79 > 80.

■■■■

GENOCIDE

180

A survey by Dr. Richard Sterner, under the auspices of the Guilty? I
Foundation revealed in 1942 that Negroes were often discrimin|j|l
against in the administration of government services. Sometimes till
are so written that the majority of Negroes are exempted from beiiHi
provided even though they need them most. “Thus,” according to |U
report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights in 1947, “the old
and survivors’ insurance and unemployment compensation system do u»
cover agriculture, domestic service, and self-employed persons. Sixty IU* j
percent of all Negro workers fall into these categories compared wit It ,
percent of all white workers.”

And Dr. Sterner found that although Negroes have a greater need I I
old age assistance than whites, average grants in the Federal Old
Assistance Program were lower for Negroes than for whites. Hr ,il*
found that the benefits paid by the Federal Farm Security Administr.ih
were less for Negroes than for whites. In addition, he found that di*
crimination against Negroes, both in payments and in numbers hd|»n •

can be cited in government aid to the blind, and for the care of delinqi

destitute and handicapped children.

But the greatest of all discriminations constantly perpetrated agiiiniy
the Negro people by the Government of the United States is the rcluul
of the Department of Justice, Congress and the Supreme Court to
the Negro that equality before the law guaranteed by the FourtcTiiiU
Amendment. This is another way of saying that these agencies of dill
Federal Government refuse to give the Negro the protection of the him

granted other citizens as a matter of course. As a result he is the con si

prey of the lawless, fair game for the criminal of high and low degree

The Department of Justice, under the Attorney General, is the \<ws
enforcement agency of the Federal Government. As such it recti) V*i
complaints of violations of the Federal law, investigates them through
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecutes them through Fedfifl)
District Attorneys in the Federal Courts. Because of the frequency will*
which complaints were received, usually from Negro citizens, allcgmn
violations of civil rights, a special Civil Rights Section was formed n
1939. This section receives between 1,500 and 2,500 complaints of civil
rights violations every year. But in the eight years ending in 1947, oui
some 12,000 complaints received, it prosecuted only some 178 cases.

Thus it has been without value in protecting the Negro people fwini
violence, in securing the rights guaranteed them under the Constitutnm
or in preventing or punishing the crime of genocide. The explanation
usually given is that the law makes it impossible for them to obtain
convictions. To a layman it seems that the Fourteenth and Fifteen! I.
Amendments, and the resulting Civil Rights Act, are explicit and mi!
ficient, and that all that would be needed to enforce them would be il»»

THE EVIDENCE 181

lation and will to do so by a President, his Department of Justice,

,1 ,| 1C Supreme Court. Admittedly the tortuous decisions by which the
Line Court traditionally holds that the plain and clear laws protecting
L citizens mean something else, has made it difficult for the Civil
,l,i . Section of the Department of Justice.

lt.it defeatism and unwillingness to act forthrightly have contributed

H, more to its negative record in the protection of Negro citizens
il.rir rights. The President has failed to enlarge the Section— while

mI.Ii, lying manyfold the Federal Bureau of Investigation and making
I powerful instrument of repression. The President’s Committee on
|„| Kights suggests that this defeatism, this unwillingness to act
,il, lightly, may come from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, charged

I . 1 , the investigations upon which the Civil Rights Section is expected

, make prosecutions. “There is evidence,” says the report on page 123,
w 1 he civil rights cases files in the Department of Justice that the
L,u has sometimes felt that it was burdensome and difficult to under-
lie as many specific civil rights investigations as are requested. More-
||f. investigations have not always been as full as the needs of the
L would warrant. ... The tendency of FBI agents to work in

cooperation with local police officers has sometimes been detrimental
1. die handling of civil rights investigations. At times the local officers
L themselves under suspicion. Even where this is not so, the victims
L witnesses in civil rights cases are apt to be weak and frightened people
»lm are not encouraged to tell their stories freely to federal agents w ere
it,, laiter are working closely with local police officers. Having in
Lrral established such a wholly sound relationship, it is sometimes
L, u | t for the FBI agent to break this relationship and to work without,
l ( ven against the local police when a civil rights case comes along.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the Civil Rights Section,
Lhlished for the specific purpose of protecting the Negro from the
1 nil, nt abrogation of his civil rights, has failed as definitively in accom-
, king this as has every other agency of government.

The Congress

I km many years the Congress of the United States has refused to guar-
L,ee by adequate law the rights to which the Negro people of the
l filled States are entitled under the Constitution. Every member of the
| mgress participating in the refusal has violated his oath of office whic
L, nines that he uphold the Constitution of the United States including
' I,, amendments guaranteeing the Negro people due process of law and
m.il treatment before it, and specifically guaranteeing the basic right
1.1 voting. This historic refusal, repeatedly made over the years, is in

GENOCIDE

182

itself an incitement to genocide since it serves as a Federal legilttll 1
announcement that a Negro American has no rights that a white
ican will be forced to respect. It is, moreover, indirect but potwl
approval for the several states persecuting Negroes through segrranJ
venal courts and corrupt police.

Bills providing for the implementation of the civil rights guar.imJ
Negroes by the Constitution, providing for federal anti-lynching lejll
tion, elimination of the poll-tax, and a Fair Employment Practices < ,,
nnssion to eliminate discrimination in employment, have been intrmln.
again and again in successive Congresses. And again and again they l»<
been defeated, shelved or filibustered to death. Moreover, a political ■
fidence game is regularly played on the Negro people every four y*.
The two main political parties, acting in convention, quadrennially ■
ISC the Negro that at long last he will be given his fundamental riplii
a citizen, that thenceforth he will be more than a voiceless autom,
whose function is only to contribute to monopoly’s profits, that I,
now on he will be protected from violence and bloodshed. Repil,

made, these promises are just as regularly betrayed in Congress ufo
Congress.

lir F e tec ^ nic l ue °f betrayal has become an institution known .n 1
Gentlemen’s Agreement.” More accurately it is the “sell-out” in wltl.l
Congressional leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties agrer n
to permit legislation providing for full Negro citizenship to come up U
vote. It is a pledge of continued oppression and bloodshed, its obscrv*®
depending solely on the word of the “gentlemen” in Congress, 11
pledge has never been violated. Amendments and the filibuster an „l
used to cheat the Negro American out of the protection he is enuih
to as a United States citizen.

The report for 1950 by the National Association for the Advanccim ■
of Colored People and the American Jewish Congress has this m .
about the record of Congress in the latest year:

“No substantial action was taken on the comprehensive civil right, (fl
the poll-tax or anti-lynching bills, the prohibition of segregation in mttrflti
commerce or the armed forces or any of the bills for self-governn„„i .
equality in the District of Columbia. ... The FEPC Bill was gutted m if
House of Representatives and filibustered to death in the Senate.”

In commenting on this quotation and the report from which it coni,
another report on the plight of the Negro in 1950 prepared by the < P
Rights Congress, says the following:

The report fails to link this with the aggressive war policy of the In 1
usan Truman Administration and fails to note the signal refusal of the 'I'll
man Administration even to make a Pretense of effort to enact vital legislutln
m the interests of the Negro people.

THE EVIDENCE

i8 3

“Nor does it mention the fact that at the same time that five thousand

• It legates assembled in a Crusade to Washington in January, 1950, to press
lor the enactment of the FEPC legislation, President Truman had gone on
11 fishing trip to Key West, Florida, and refused to lift a finger to win his
own party members to support the Bill.

“This absolute refusal by Congress to pass any significant civil rights legis-
1 . 1 lion in 1950, and the failure of the Democratic Party even to go through
1 lie pretense of fighting for it can be interpreted in no other way than as a
product of the aggressive war policy of the American ruling class. The pas-
.igc of the McCarran Act, which would make the very advocacy of civil
fights a crime, reveals further that Congress not only failed to pass beneficial

• ivil-rights legislation, but actually took a major step toward denying the
Negro people and their white allies the right even to petition for civil rights
in the future. Thus, the record of the legislative branch of government in
i«)50 was actually one of attack on the rights and lives of the Negro masses.”

Document D of our Appendix shows in some detail the tone, temper
and maneuvers of Congress from January 16, 1950 to September 21,
1950. It is filled with racist attacks on minorities, punctuated by slanders
against the Negro people.

The Supreme Court

The record of the Supreme Court in buttressing the tyranny directed
against the Negro people is particularly revolting because it has decorated
oppression with legal pomposity, excused genocide by every legal circum-
locution found in the lexicon of law and precedent. Its record is peculiarly
painful in that it has used the righteous tone of legal language to author-
ise murder and to permit that segregation which inevitably leads to mass
■layings on the basis of race. With synthetic independence and with
< Mympian gestures it has handed over 15,000,000 Americans to oppres-
Mon and grief. For generations it has avoided the obvious intent, the
plain unambiguous words, the clear, self-evident meaning of the Four-
tcenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Instead it has declared with all the
majesty of its position, with all the spurious dignity that legal trappings
( an endow, that United States Negroes cannot be effectively protected b>
1 heir -own government from segregation, disfranchisement and violence
No amount of legal theory or twistings concerning state rights can pal-
liate its crime. It jias delivered a people— Americans it was supposed tc
protect — to degradation and violence.

Indeed it has done even more than this. It has used the very provisior
that was to protect Negroes to enrich the monopoly that oppressed them
It found that the Fourteenth Amendment was not meant for the pro
lection of the Negro but for the protection of powerful corporations
I Tom 1868 to 1912, the Supreme Court rendered 604 decisions based upor
(he Fourteenth Amendment, of which 312 concerned corporations. Ther<
were twenty-eight appeals to the Court involving Negro rights under th<

GENOCIDE

184

Fourteenth Amendment, of which twenty-two were decided adversely

As late as 1945, in the case of Screws v. United States, the Suprcm*
Court found that the Fourteenth Amendment, providing that Negfori
should be allowed due process of law, did not apply to a Negro beaten in
death by police before trial after he had been arrested and charged wnli
theft of a tire. But it is in upholding segregation that the Supreme Court
has been, and continues to be particularly adamant. Repeatedly it hai
held that segregation is not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment
providing for equality of treatment, on the theory that segregation 1*
legal if “separate but equal” accommodations are provided. The obvimn
and easily provable fact that accommodations provided for Negroes an
virtually never equal but always inferior, has not shaken the Court. Mi
Justice Harlan, in a powerful dissent still valid today, charged In
colleagues in 1896 with emasculating the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Amendments by upholding segregation. He wrote in Plessy v. Ferguson

“Our Constitution is color blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classri
among citizens. . . „ We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people abovr
all other peoples. But it is difficult to reconcile that boast with a state of Jaw
which practically puts the brand of servitude and degradation upon a large*
class of our fellow citizens, our equals before the law. The thin disguise o(
‘equal* accommodations . . . will not mislead anyone, or atone for the wrong
this day done.**

While the Supreme Court in 1945 against the Democratic white
primary in Smith v. Allright, in June of 1951 it upheld the poll tax, an
other device for preventing Negroes from voting. And if the Suprerm
Court’s. 1945 decision tended to aid the Negro in his fight for the vote,
it was nullified by the Federal Government’s failure to enforce it through
police action. The failure of Federal prosecution enables Southern stair*
to thwart it successfully. Similarly adverse decisions by the Court a*,
to segregation by zoning are circumvented by the restrictive covenant
which the Supreme Court in June, 1951, held can be enforced through
suit in civil courts. The Court, moreover, has made no attack on tin-
widespread general segregation enforced through the laws of many
states over a wide section of the United States, a segregation which is the
source and breeding place of the genocide directed against the Negro
people.

Rather the Court apparently seeks the appearance of liberality by at
tacking the problem on its periphery, by decisions which do not change
the overwhelming fact of segregation. John Pittman, analyzing a group
of decisions concerning Negro rights made by the Supreme Court on
October 9, 1950, writes in Masses & Mainstream of February and Janu-
ary 2, 1951:

THE EVIDENCE

.s arsi's as £«* Sis

ization. Since teachers form die bulk o the K standard oi

£i."£L It froze the present status of Negro

’ -A s“»"deeision refused to review Senator Glen T.ylods ap^ bom .

i-.£K.-rC- S tvs a

iH>inent. , . „ CnnTt re ;ected the appeal of the seven Martinsville,

I >» ££ « "'“i

I H ignored the issues of die guilt _o ’ q£ Virginia in all its history

I 1 lily-white jury and the fa reserving the death penalty solely

I ^ the 5E£ of lynch-justice throughout the

""'•However, although side-stepping the separate-but-equal
1 Inurt did hdd in favor of Negro petitioners for the ngh

ruling in fa.o, of Negroes scektnj

perpetuating the status of the masses.

In summarizing die guilt of .he Federal Government in erring an,
reserving the conditions for genoc.de it might be well K ' ''P“ th
words of Milton R. Konvitz, Associate Professor, School of Industr,
Labor Relations, Cornell University:

•Tnnoress has refused to pass laws to -declare the poll-tax illegal; to mak
discrhnniation in private

" ,me h nd ffiTdS uncoSstk

GENOCIDE

1 86

of property; to declare the poll-tax an unconstitutional tax on a federal *
guaranteed right or privilege. The Supreme Court has placed the Negro
the mercy of the individual states; they alone have the power to define im-»
guarantee civil rights. . .

And all these failures contribute heavily to genocide, to killing on thl
basis of race, to a segregation “deliberately inflicting on the group cmi
ditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whnl#
or in part,” to causing “serious bodily and mental harm to members ul
the group.”

# # #

In concluding this section on conspiracy to commit genocide in violation
of Article III of the Genocide Convention, we submit that we have proved
that such conspiracy is a fact, that the several branches and department*
of the Government of the United States combine with state government •>
and the financial community to the accomplishment of the conspiracy’* 1
goal. We have shown the motive of the conspiracy and we have shown
its methods. We have proved that monopoly profits from it to the sum
of four billions of dollars yearly; that through killing part of the Negrn
people on the basis of race, monopoly exploits the remainder; that through
the genocide practiced against the Negro people, monopoly secures poliu
cal and economic control of the entire American people, that this genoculr
in short is the decisive link in the chain that binds Americans to the plan*
and profits of Wall Street. We have ptoved that both state and Fedeiul
governments are the creatures of monopoly; that as a part of this con
spiracy a political party ran on an open platform of white supremacy,
that states charter, and the Federal Government permits, the operation
of a score of terrorist societies devoted to organized violence against the
Negro people; that as a further part of the conspiracy, the Negro people
are deprived of the vote, weakening potential mass movements (01
peace and economic and political democracy; that in furtherance of the
conspiracy a mass of racist Hitler-like law has been written and is cn
forced by the various states; that the Federal Government authorizes and
permits segregation in the armed forces of the United States, in Wash
ington, D.C., the Panama Canal Zone, as well as the various states of t hr
United States, well knowing that such segregation inevitably results in
genocide.

We further submit that we have proved that the President of thr
United States, the executive head of the Government of the United
States, Congress, and the Supreme Court, long have and are now syn
chronizing their acts and failures to act to accomplish the genocidal ends
of this conspiracy of which they themselves are members. The fact that
they characterize this genocide and that which makes it possible as only

THE EVIDENCE i8 7

the “American system” of states rights or of checks and balances makes
ii not a whit less deadly.

ARTICLE III (c). DIRECT AND PUBLIC INCITEMENT
TO COMMIT GENOCIDE

The mouthings of white supremacists, the polemics of racists, echo
constantly over the land, insisting that the Negro, by law if possible and
by force if necessary, be imprisoned in an inferior status. The threat
violence is the common denominator to all these incitements, which play
no small part in the resulting mass murder on the basis of race, whether
i hev concern pleas for the preservation of the segregated school system,
die white primary, or “the purity of white womanhood.” There is scarce y
anyone, too low in reputation or too high in official position, particular y
m the South, who does not feel qualified to threaten Negro Americans 1
they do not keep their “place.” The high faintin’ speech paying tribute to
,he slave holders’ Confederacy of the past and promising vengeance on
;my Negro who dares exercise his rights in the present is almost an Amer-
ican art form, specifically in the South where it is as stylized as the sonnet.
Ii is a part of the standard equipment of Governors, Kleagles, and Sena-
tors, of sheriffs, businessmen and congressmen, and all too frequently it

is spread to millions by means of the radio.

There follows a sample of the kind of incitement which has become an
A merican institution in which the threats are direct enough to any w ac
know the delicate nuances of the Southland. Proof that the threats are
understood is offered by the Negro dead, the Negro maimed, and tha
fractional number of cases described here. These incitements are no
arranged by date but rather by their representative and typical quality.

Governor Herman Talmadge, of Georgia, in a radio address on October »
,949, said in speaking of the struggle of Negro Americans foi ' their rig
under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments: We intend to fight ham
to hand with our weapons and we will never submit to one me of
croachment on our traditional pattern of segregation (Italics ours.) tt
further said on this occasion when he described the Negro aspiration fc
legal American rights as “dangerous and revolutionary. We shall fight th
dastardly effort with all the strength and resources we have. ... We wi
fight them in the state courts. We will fight them in the federal courts. If
will fight them in the countries and cities, (Italics ours.) It was at t is pou
that the Governor added his threat of “hand to hand fighting with all o,

Senato^T heodore Bilbo, of Mississippi, made a radio speech on June 2
1046 in which he advised the murder of Negroes attempting to vote in t
Juh 2 primaries of that year. Urging “every red-blooded Anglo-Saxon ra-
in Mississippi to resort to any means to keep hundreds of Negroes from
polls” he suggestively added that he had defended eleven people charge
with murder and that all had been acquitted. “Use any means to keep the

GENOCIDE

1 88

5“® the , poiIs ’” he continued, “and if you don’t know what I’m talk,,,.,
about you re not up on modern means of prevention.” On August q i.uZ
again speaking over the radio, this time over the Mutual BroaSdntr V
tem he announced his membership in the Ku Klux Klan, and said- Vrtl

h On une^o ^2 * R-H * f ,T ^ P ° lls is t0 see him the night befo, J
i . , r , 9 ' l 945 ’ Bl b ° told 3 re P orter the story of a lynching wnl.

ScSwaKD * h = M- Dollie Masonand’w!

frlL^T k’ ! Detr ° lt > Michigan, addressing them as “My dear n t

Derrot TA r letter . he P^icted another race riot against Negroes
remarks u ^ for u July * 4 ’ 1949 “nta.ns the Mow,.*

Nrro solL r frh; f K Pr ° P h Sy \T^ the retUrn ° f these million or mm!
Negro soldiers that have been coddled and misled into believing that as .

result of this war they are coming back to America and will be permitted all

the social and political rights that are the province of the whke man in -

white man s country I prophesy that hell is going to break loose in Geoipa

and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf.” He also said, “The Negro race 3

" in AWca bas ™ ad < no progress at all. £££$1

lnuary - 4 ’ .‘947. Southern Democrats launched a filibuster to t.i.
oath of e offic S f . a ?n Z R U l| n °< tH u Se K a .- C beC3USe ° f itS refusal t0 administer i la

at once & Ahi T FI, ^ V The SenaW tabled motions to se3t Bill*

0 ° S< \ Allen J- Ellender of Louisiana, who had been in charge of il»

whit™ kT! atl0n mt0 the t , er ! 0r against Ne 8 roes in Mississippi and l,.al

1 w Sh tV hat tCrr ° r ’ T Cd tHat the SenatC refused t0 seac Bilbo became

two da? n 1 R iK PtUre u n 1 vote ’” The fili buster was broken aim

two days with Bilbo not being sworn in. Bilbo went to New Orleans I .

would lTnnT 33 S T t€ deC - de t d that Undl hi$ return > his credential,'
would lie on the table without prejudice and without action.” Bilbo in tla

meantime was to draw salary for himself and his staff. This compromise wu.

ks mSe^R 333 *l° USe haS > urisdicti °n over the qualifications <>l

2*?£ ”• of ““ ° f ■ l *

S TrI°r R h JA n ES f °- Eastla c nd of Mississippi, during the course of a speech hr

had raid h “ June * 8 ’ *945 charged that Negro soldier,

had raped white women in Europe. Eastland made the inflammatory and

rald Pr ° V ^ d Statement that French Senegalese troops, Negro colonial!, had
raped 5000 German women in a Stuttgart subway. The local French con

tested' Eas a tl a C nd ?mU h ,Catl ° n ^ the U ’ S ;, State Department, formally pro
luTv 6 ffmr a d S S arges as untme - Allied Supreme Headquarters, on
hesia! Week ' 1 ? ng lnvestlgatl0n > denied the charge. Not one voice in
the Senate was raised to protest his charges, either during or following In-

June 28 spech. On October 12, 1945, Senator Eastland boosted to a defega
uon from organized CIO plants that secret white committees are forming
in Mississippi, wherever necessary, to prevent Negroes from voting The
Congressional Record for January 25, 1946, carried a threat by gnatm
Eastland that if the FEPC became law he would “take great pleasure in
nullifying its provisions.” He predicted Klan terror and fynchings on t
scale that occurred towards the end of the Reconstruction period.

Mayor Jeffries of Detroit, Michigan, in his 1945 campaign for re-election
distributed leaflets attacking Negroes aitf Jews ’

Senator Allen J. Ellender of Louisiana declared on the floor of the Senate

THE EVIDENCE

189

111 June, 1946: “I believe in white supremacy, and as long as I am in the Sen-
I me I expect to fight for white supremacy, because I can see that ... if the
umalgamation of whites and Negroes in this country is permitted, there will
l»r a mongrel race, and there will come to pass the identical condition under
I which Egypt, India, and other civilizations decayed. ... A race which has not
ihown creative genius may be assumed to be an unfit type so far as progress in
civilization is concerned and is a matter of concern for the eugenist. Those
who seek to maintain the white race in its purity within the United States
me working in harmony with the ideals of eugenics. Asiatic exclusion and
Negro repatriation are expressions of the eugenic ideal.”

Ihnator John Sparkman of Alabama , campaigning at Huntington College,
Montgomery, Alabama, declared on September 24, 1948: “I, as your Senator,
will continue to fight as I have fought in the past twelve years against the
imposition of civil rights legislation upon the South.”

A direct incitement for lynch violence against Robert Durr, Negro editor by
l icderick Sullens, editor of the Jackson, Miss. Daily News. Durr had written
to Sullens requesting that he print the truth about the recent Magee, Missis-
sippi, incident where three Negro families had been driven into swamps and
limited down with rifles and bloodhounds. Sullens printed Durr’s letter with
the heading: “An Impudent Letter from a Birmingham Negro Editor.”
Durr wrote: “Postal regulations forbid the saying of exaedy what should
Ik- said concerning the impudent writer of the above letter.” Sullens lauded
the posse of 300 that hunted down the Negroes in Magee, and went on: “It
suffices to say that when race riots are started in this nation, if it happens,
Negroes like Robert Durr will be largely responsible and should be the
first to receive attention.”

William Lindley, president of the Florida Peace Officers Association, said in
the course of a state-wide meeting held in January, 1946, in St. Augustine,
Vlorida, that Negro veterans must be “kept in their place.” He spoke of
the Negro veterans as “Eleanor’s chosen children” and added: “Those boys
arc ready to attack policemen, sometimes with guns, if they are roughed up
.1 little.” Lindsey spoke also of intermarriage between Negro GIs and
British and French women, and said that the Negro soldiers “are now
coming back expecting to marry our girls.” He identified the Negro veterans
with the psycho-neurotics. Lindsey said also that the Florida Police Chiefs
Association had authorized payment of money for legal aid to officers. At
the end of his speech he declared: “These boys are coming back pretending
to be heroes without even having seen a gun unless they stole one and smug-
gled it in. We’ve got to keep them in their places.”

I Iijoh Dubrose, editor of the Radio News, of Birmingham, Alabama, wrote
.1 signed article condemning the march of Negroes on the county courthouse
in a demonstratioif for their right to vote. Dubrose wrote in part: “The best
proof that I have to offer is that our Committee of Public Information comes
up with the report that within a few hours of the Negro march on the
courthouse, plans were under way to organize, or reorganize, the Ku Klux
Klan.”

Following are representative incitements- by vigilant organizations and

I heir leaders as well as excerpts from racist writers:

I I ie United Sons of Dixie, incorporated, December 28, 1943, in Tennessee,
operated as the Ku Klux wartime front. Its oath included: “Should these

GENOCIDE

190

want another Pearf Harbor from the' 16 man ' S °if- negro s counCr y ? Do ».
to make the U.S.A. a white man’s coum??”" $ Wiil you l, '‘ l

taken^rdly^as^foHowsT^pr^i^^j 6 ^ °* the Vni ^f Sons °t D,xie **'

gun and plenty of ammunition, and to £ mdvZh With 3 **

trouble, to do all in mv Dower L „ u- ? dy hen che n r m 1,

swear not to take any excuses but tn m P j nty - 1 further P romis <- ■
good n- -s are dead ones.” ^ g °° d ° nes of th <™> as the

members the follLtngf “ThleTnited^Stlte P A reskient read to al1 »'*|

be, a white man’s country *or whk™ l u ° f Amenca must > a *H dull
it that way. The white people of "*• We musl H'

not only here but in otL/countries-?, ? l COm P ose the Master «,,!

do you ever get mad? Do you ever fed ike l? "* pe °P le - M "'

negroes until there are none left | n i k getting out and blasting |M
elect members of our Order an d “ t ~ y? We mUSt nominal < •'Mil
offices. These men will be able to put l aw T * n StatC ’ C ° Unty and city puMi.
help us. They can also help us to *et ^ ° j* statute books which iv|||
defend ourselves and the white rJ 1 T ? nd ammun ition in order tf

lux k, t «« »

nation, and particularly of any democrat eSSentlal . t0 the success of , IM y
Its citizens must be One Peopk They must'b! nat ‘° nal Unity o£
racial and national purpose P r, fn i„ L C common instincts ,,,l

o people which is permanently' L any c,ass > «« or

of the nation has nJE 7 , dZT Vu the Spidt and punwi
unassailable; no one can claim that ^ ' negro race is certainly

Should see in the negm a r ? e ‘ l™ 0 " 3 few hia *° a te fit. “VV.

are the Chinese, with inferior honesty anT ourSelves d'«»

His racial inferiority has nothin* ? 7 ’ d L g , reatl y inferior industry
equally „ „|| alien d ° Wl,h ,h , is l ‘«*

•nd Hindus, . . . No ST* ,OW »f Chi ™“. IvSHt
Of a man of any other color. It is a law on 'rh-^ T? 6 3 Wh,te man

sag ? - :zt:z

''pMicfy 'aTnounSdts (LZZ'SSZg IN * 5 ' "«"•

the Tennessee Klan would use fas efectrl ^ h^^u $ a " d Jews ' He
whatever way seems most appropSte ” ^ hanging > footing

Columbians, in A A

* any y t0 ioin who ' s

through the ballot. If we warn m bury III? “ ? t0 we cai’i ,l„
gamze white Gentiles politically to combat ThTr? the , sand ’ if w <= will o,
can pass law enabling £ to burj a?l £\l'Znd” ^ ^ ™

THE EVIDENCE

191

I he Rev. Harrison, the “Railroad Evangelist,’’ said at a Klan meeting in
Atlanta , Georgia, on November i, 1948: “In God’s sight it is no sin to kill a

n r, for a n r is no more than a dog.” “Itchy Trigger-Finger” Nash,

an Adanta policeman who was given a citation by the Klan for having
killed so many Negroes, expressed the hope that he would “not have to kill

all the n s in the South,” but would get some help from his brother

Klansmen.

I Iomer Loomis, Jr., leader of the Columbians, Inc., Atlanta brownshirts, ad-
dressing the Imperial Kloncilium of the Ku Klux Klan, East Point Klavern,

Georgia, in 1946: “We propose that all the n s in America be shipped

hack to Africa, with time-bombs on board the ships as an economy measure.”
William Gregg Blanchard, leader of the White Front, Miami, Florida, writ-
ing in the official organ Nation & Race : “If one believes in history before
effeminate and fallacious ideologies, the recognition of the superiority of
1 he Nordic and the Nordicized world is immediate. A dangerous upsurge
of democracy and self-determination throughout the world of color is rob-
bing the Western World of some of its power, but we have not yet lived to
see the end of white supremacy. . . . When the Federal Government recog-
nizes biological values and proceeds systematically to solve the South’s prob-
lem by expatriation, birth control, and rigid segregation, the long race vigil

will be over That dusky race which enslaved was happy and lovable must

today be recognized for the sullen revolutionary mass it is and be disciplined
accordingly. . . . Racial Nationalism demands that the negro be made a
ward of the nation and governed by special codes befitting the dignity of a
white state. (The Racial Nationalist Program of the White Front:) Mis-
cegnation made a felony. Segregation of the Jews. With the Nordic nations
of South America, the U.S. must exercise a strict tutorship over the whole
Latin-American domain. American participation in white control and regu-
lation of the world of color.”

Announcement of American Gentile Army, Convers, Georgia, 1946: “This
movement should appeal to every patriotic American Gentile. Independent
Patriot, this is a great opportunity! This contest is a cold-blooded matter of
political action that will be determined by the law of the jungle, ‘the sur-
vival of the fittest.*

“For the privilege of membership in the American Gentile Army, I, a Cau-
casian American, pledge my loyalty as represented and in case of an)
violation on my part I agree to relinquish any claim or rights to member
ship in the American Gentile Army or association with the Pro-Whit<
American Gentile Party or the Commoner Party.”

) ames Shipp, president Commoner Party, American Gentile Army, etc., 1946
“The Jew has a place in America. We won’t treat him the way certaii
other countries have. He has place in production. Let him work on th
farms, and haul manure, but let him keep out of government.”

ARTICLE III (e). COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE

Wc charge with complicity in genocide:

The President of the United States;

The Congress of the United States;

The Supreme Court of the United States;

192

GENOCIDE

The Attorney General of the United States;

The Department of justice of the United States;

The states and officials of Mississippi, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Afkansa*.
Oklahoma and Texas, all of whom enforce segregation in violation
of the United Nations Charter against the Negro people, thti»
fomenting genocide against them, and all of whom employ an insti
tutionalized violence, using courts and police, to prevent the politic al
or economic advance of the Negro people;

The Morgan, Rockefeller, Du Pont and Mellon interests whit I*
dominate (see Appendix) the political and economic life of tin
South specifically and the United States generally.

Original Southern Klans, Inc. (Georgia);

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Florida, Inc.;

Federated Klans of Alabama, Inc.;

Governor James Byrnes, of South Carolina, former Secretary <>!
State and former Supreme Court Justice, for incendiary statement ■»
defending segregation, itself an institution that makes for murdn
on the basis of race;

Former Governor J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, candi
date for President on the States’ Rights (Dixiecrat) ticket in 1948,
for white supremacist statements and leadership of a political parly
whose official documents incited to violence against the Negm
people of the United States;

Governor Fielding L. Wright of Mississippi, candidate for vice
President on the Dixiecrat White supremacist ticket, for the reason >
cited above and for his part in the murder of the innocent Willir
McGee on the basis of race;

Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia, for repeated white su
premacist statements, some over the radio, inciting to genocide;

Representative John Rankin, Democratic Congressmen from Mis
sissippi, for repeated incitements to violence on the basis of race;

Senator James O. Eastland, Democrat of Mississippi, for repeated
defenses of segregation and other incitements to violence on the
basis of race;

Senator Allen J. Ellender, Democrat of Louisiana, for racist white
supremacist statements tending to incite to violence against the
Negro people.

PART IV

Summary and Prayer

In which the case is briefly reviewed and prayers are made to
the General Assembly for such action as wrll condemn and
prevent the crime of genocide now being committed agai
the Negro people of the United States.

Summary and Prayer

I mere may be debate as to the expediency of condemning the Govern-
ment of the United States for the genocide it practices and permits

• luinst the 15,000,000 of its citizens who are Negroes. There can be none
ilmut the existence of the crime. It is an undeniable fact. The United
Stales Government itself, through the Report of the President’s Com-
imllee on Civil Rights quoted earlier, admits the institutionalized Negro

• fpression, written into the law, and carried out by police and courts.

I I describes it, examines it, surveys it, writes about it, talks about it, and
dors everything but change it. It both admits it and protects it.

Thus it was easy for your petitioners to offer abundant proof of the
< lime. It is everywhere in American life. And yet words and statistics are
Imii poor things to convey the long agony of the Negro people. We have

I »ioved “killing members of the group” — but the case after case after case

• ilcd does nothing to assuage the helplessness of the innocent Negro
napped at this instant by police in a cell which will be the scene of his
death. We have shown “mental and bodily harm” in violation of Article

II of the Genocide Convention but this proof can barely indicate the
life-long terror of thousands on thousands of Negroes forced to live under
die menace of official violence, mob law and the Ku Klux Klan. We
have tried to reveal something of the deliberate infliction “on the group of
conditions which bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”

but this cannot convey the hopeless despair of those forced by law to
live in conditions of disease and poverty because of race, of birth, of
color. We have shown incitements to commit genocide, shown that a
conspiracy exists to commit it, and now we can only add that an entire
people, not only unprotected by their government but the object of
rovernment-inspired violence, reach forth their hands to the General
Assembly in appeal. Three hundred years is a long time to wait. And

195

GENOCIDE

196

now we ask that world opinion, that the conscience of mankind ««
symbolized by the General Assembly of the United Nations turn not •
deaf ear to our entreaty.

We plead as patriotic Americans, knowing that any act that can aUt
in removing the incubus of United States oppression of the Ameiinh
Negro people from our country is the highest patriotism. The AmCfftl
Dream was for justice, justice for all men, regardless of race, creed, Of
color. He who betrays it, betrays our country, betrays the world itself sim#
the United States is a power in it for good or for evil.

We speak, too, as world citizens, certain that if the forces of predatory
reaction are allowed to continue their present policies, are allowed to
continue a profitable genocide against Americans, the time will nm
be long removed, the world being what it is, that the same forces will
practice genocide on a wider scale against the nationals of other nationi
So we plead not for ourselves alone but for all mankind. We plead nm
only for an end of the crime of genocide against the Negro people u(
the United States but we plead, too, for peace.

If the General Assembly acts as the conscience of mankind and then'
fore acts favorably on our petition, it will have served the cause of pca< <%
the protection of which is the fundamental reason for its being. W|
recall the words of Mr. Justice Jackson at the Nuremberg trial of tl»»
Nazi war criminals when he declared that silence in the face of sm li
crimes would make us a partner of them. We cannot believe that tlu
General Assembly will not condemn the crimes complained of in thii
petition.

We ask that the General Assembly of the United Nations find and
declare by resolution that the Government of the United States i»
guilty of the crime of Genocide against the Negro people of the United
States and that it further demand that the government of the United
States stop and prevent the crime of genocide.

We further ask that the General Assembly by resolution condemn tin
Government of the United States for failing to implement and observe n •*
solemn international obligations under the Charter of the United
Nations and the Genocide Convention and that the General Assembly
also demand that the United States immediately take effective steps to
carry out and fulfill its international obligations under the Charter and
the Genocide Convention.

In Part II of this petition we asked, and now ask again, for action
under Article VIII of the Genocide Convention which provides that .>
contracting party can “call upon the competent organs of the Unite* l
Nations to take action under* the Charter for the prevention and sup
pression of acts of Genocide.” «

May we express the urgent hope that for the sake of justice and

SUMMARY AND PRAYER

*97

. . , integrity of the United Nations Charter and the

1 fai*"of °he Genocide Convention, that a contracting party now
|£ « 1 if°wn and “coupon the contpo.cn, organs of Ac

United Nations to take acuon^. • • and ^ a$k again;

In addition we asked m Par li ° ' h S ^ Ge ’ nodde Convention to

tyScSSt'lScd i Ac Internationa, Court of Ju,
t inTccordance with Article IX of the Genocide Cc«»e»no,n ^

" Wc ask now, therefore, that the ^General sTah

iresrt to

ilir peace of the world.

PART V

Appendix

Including: (i) a case history of violence and illegal acts in the
State of Georgia committed from 1940 through 1950 with the
specific purpose of preventing Negroes from voting; (2) a study
which, with some variation, is typical of other Southern states,
revealing how the charge of “rape” was transformed into a
state instrument for the oppression of the Negro people in the
State of Louisiana; (3) a study of monopoly control of the
South; and (4) a calendar of Congressional action showing its
consistent refusal to act for the protection or welfare of the
Negro people; (5) a selected bibliography.

Document A

Document A was prepared as an offer of proof in the trial of the United
States of America v. William L. Patterson, executive secretary of the Civil
Rights Congress. It will be recalled that Mr. Patterson was cited for contempt
of Congress after Representative Henderson Lanham of Georgia, acting chair-
man of a Congressional committee investigating lobbying, had called him
“a blac\ son of a bitch” and had attempted to assault him.

Although the purpose of the document was to show that Congressman
Lanham had been illegally elected under the Fourteenth Amendment , it is
also a social document of unusual worth, revealing how state officials combine
with the Ku Klux Klan, and use the Klan as a quasi-official arm of govern-
ment, to prevent the Negro people from exercising their Constitutional light
to vote.

It is valuable, too, in that it reveals methods and techniques in widespread
use in other states throughout the South.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The United States of America 1

v . f Criminal No. 177-50

William L. Patterson j

Offer of Proof on Fourteenth Amendment Point

The witness, Stetson Kennedy, would testify as to the facts showing the
unconstitutional denial or abridgment of the right of a substantial number of
citizens of Georgia to vote in the Congressional elections in that State during
the period 1940 to 1950. These facts are as follows:

1. During this entire period from 1940 to 1948 no one was allowed to
vote in Georgia who had not registered.

2. Election of 1940: The United States Census Bureau’s records show
that in 1940 the total number of citizens in Georgia above the age of 21

202

GENOCIDE

and thus eligible under Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Con-
stitution to vote in Congressional elections was 1,768,969.

Official returns of the 1940 election in Georgia as reported by the Secretary
of State of Georgia was 312,539 votes. In other words, only 17 percent of the
total population of Georgia above the age of 21 years succeeded in actually
casting a ballot in 1940.

3. Election of 1948: Census Bureau records reveal that in 1948 the popu
lation of Georgia above the age of 21 years was 1,968,519.

In the election of that year, a total of 365,356 votes were cast, according to
the records of the Secretary of State of Georgia. This was 18 percent of the
total population above the age of 21.

4. Negro Population and Vote : According to Census Bureau records, every
third person in Georgia during the period 1940 to 1948 was a Negro. But,
according to the same source, in 1948 82 percent of the white population above
the age of 21 years was registered, and only 18 percent of the Negro popula
tion above the age of 21 years had been registered. The percentages for 1940
were considerably lower because of the existence at that time of the State’s
polltax law, and the inviolate status of the white primary.

These figures and percentages indicate that an overwhelming majority of
the Negro citizens of Georgia above the age of 21 did not exercise the right
to vote in Congressional elections.

The witness, if permitted to testify, would establish that the failure to exer-
cise the franchise by Negroes as aforesaid was due to a denial and abridg-
ment of their right to do so and that there were three chief causes for this
denial or abridgment: First, direct action by officials of the State of Georgia;
second, official action by the Democratic Party of the State of Georgia, acting
as an instrument of that State; and, third, the notorious action of private
organizations and corporate powers acting with the actual or implied sanction
of the State of Georgia. He would testify that:

5. As to the first cause, official action by the State of Georgia has resulted
in the denial or abridgment of the right of citizens above the age of 21 to
vote in Congressional elections in that State in the decade from 1940 to 1950
by means of the following:

(a) Polltax legislation;

( b ) Intentional refusal on the part of the election registrars to register
qualified Negro citizens;

( d ) The enactment of legislation in Georgia abolishing all registration
lists and requiring the re-registration of citizens previously qualified to
vote, and giving virtually unlimited discretionary powers to registrars
to deny the voting right of any citizen.

6. That the rules, regulations and primaries of the Democratic Party in
the State of Georgia constitute an integral part of the election machinery of
the State and that Party has acted as an agent of the State in the conduct of
primary elections for Congressional candidates in that State; that by rules and
regulations of that Party in effect during the period 1940 through 1946,

appendix

203

Negroes were prohibited from voting in the

since there was no Republican Cong | i eSS '°" i a ici ation by Negro citizens above

primaries Ml in <W **• **

1 V- That private and corporate J* and a^stance of the
publi^offidal^o^ Aerate of Georgia during [ the : decade

‘with the sanction of said State the State of

such fear and intimidation among ^“" 5 ? g ent an d preclude

Georgia, as well as election of the Negrc

t ws. Mowing

cross-burnings, masked parades, ogging , ) people of Georgia, were

of discrimination and violence against the Neg ^ P J and % r e ffec

committed during the period 1943 through ^ exerc i s [ ng their

of preventing eligible Negro mhabitants o Georgia m itemize;

right to vote in Congressional elections; that mznyot^x Department o
were personally investigated by t e ^ 1 widely published through

where each such act took place, but throughout the State.

''“ TERD ^f^

"0, Eugene

War II. Talmadge was speaking ^fKfux Klan h d in Porter Memori:

s i‘s

s - °r*hss &*•

4 ti' amt'a lanuarv V 1944 • “We the Peo P le ” 4 ranted corporate char
b^ SwK of Gebrgk. Attorney for incorporators Vester Ownby, longt.
Exalted 6 Cyclops of Atlanta Klan Klavern 207. Members bound by oath
b f‘,, «Jbite suoremaev.” Notice of founding published in Tajmadj
7mesman. Also given statewide publicity by the Atlanta Journal and Ada

ATLANTA ° n MayT ty i 9 H-^ a Finders > Inc ” given cbarter by Sta \ e
G^rSr Group berated Klan for “disbanding at a time when most need.

and Attacked ministers who wanted to “give a break to the Negro and Je
Atlanta Constitution, May 6 , 1944-

GENOCIDE

204

lor .5 con^d Th "IS h iT ' u W u hd ' is b«,„

Ute: “StrdHl “ £&3 e z?7j

would be effective The Declarado^oHnlf^ A ° ^ SCCtl0ns vvhere “

are mankind’s ‘inalienable rights ’ It lists wha ‘

suit of happiness.’ It does not list vZ\ c hfe> llbert >'> and the pur

inalienable right — or any other kind I rip-, 01 , persons or races as an
discrimination is an American nadon^ nr 'n ^ reco S nition ^ racial

including a mtim „ f„|lo w "f?.j ' DoMSuoZTv , , ? g ' f"*”"-

Commoner Party demands renJ t?(v 1 * V ° tln g Franchise. Th<-
Constitution and the reduction of the iT I5t ^ mendment to the Federal
right of franchise. The 115th Amendment™ ^ t0 clt ! zenshi P without the
Commoner Party demands that the f II 3 | W3r S , P ‘ te measure > and the
right to vote and S hdd 0 £ hiikfaL^t ” b ri' u " d ‘? r ' Tl “
citizens of the United States of A merles j d ° Y hlte P eo P le who a «

who can qualify under the franchise ct-anrl’ ^ i 0t ^ e . r rac * a l individuals
Acts of Congress.’ ” Ae C^rf S ^

the states to set up franchice m „ rt , u ° T,7 ve Congress empower
whites who might be challenged “bv a nuhh^ ff 1 Negroes, as well as any

■“ - C-gt, staged a

announced he had -writterfkoy Ex f lt ^ ^ 7 clo P s Sam Roper

congratulating him for havingVfeated peaker of the Georgia legislature,
would have permitted Governor Ellis ArnallT" 51 ””'/ 0 " 3 amendment which
replied that he was “ I00 Z°Lnl f 0 ? ^hi f h™ 3 term ‘ ^rris

reported. Report to GBI. the Klan ^ Ieve< ^ in >” Roper

recommended absolution to^“n^^r fl probietn’n^jj 5 ? S8in 2 s "d lynching,

ASS?A W S“fS i ”, K «” S'” 0 ”'?””- *=P»'“ o GB 7 ' d “

out Klan support would be' dven cl’ ’ ^ abed Cyclops Roper said all-
ernor. It was said that Talmadge h^nromL.f'lP 16 Talmad S e for gov-
to his former job as head of the slate hi ah- d Ro P er to re-appoint him

ATLANTA Klavern No 2 q 7 JIT, 8 t Z patro1 ' Re P ort to GBI.
had conferred with gubernatorial candidate 5 ? ydops R °P er reported that he

k "^ g W -

APPENDIX

*>3

1 rplied by writing the word “Pistols’’ on a scrap of paper. Roper indicated
1 hat Talmadge had promised to give the Klan a “free hand” in any race
rioting that might develop while he was governor. It was announced that
"Brother Klansman Judge Luke Arnold would speak at Klavern 297 on the
second Thursday in May, on a plan to keep Negroes from voting. Roper
icported listening in on a conversation between Grand Dragon Samuel
(ireen and house speaker Roy Harris in Augusta, in which Harris invited
Klan leaders to discuss with him the prospect of getting the legislature to
convene itself to adopt a white primary law, and other means of keeping
Negroes from voting. Report to GBI.

ATLANTA Klavern No. 1, April 8 , 1946. Grand Dragon Green reported

I hat Talmadge had promised if elected to sweep out of office everyone who
did not believe in “white supremacy and 100 percent Americanism.” The
CIO’s Operation Dixie was attacked as “purely political,” and “for the

n r and the Jew.” “The KKK is declaring war on the CIO — we’re

going to nip their Operation Dixie in the bud,” Green said. Applications
for 98 new memberships and 37 reinstatements were attributed to Klan
interest in the Talmadge campaign. Report to GBI.

ATLANTA Klavern No. 1, April 15, 1946 . A poem “White Georgia Thanks
(iod for the Klan” was read from Talmadge’s Statesman . Klansmen in
Augusta to be urged to support Roy Harris’ Cracker Party, which, like
Talmadge, is pledged to repeal all primary laws in hope of perpetuating
die white primary. Klansmen also urged to support Marvin Griffin for
lieutenant governor, as a “100-percent white man who doesn’t want any

II r votes cast for him.” Press reports read quoting then Adjutant-general

Griffin as saying, with reference to U.S. Supreme Court decision against
white primaries, “There is a remedy, and we should be courageous enough
10 follow the example set by our forefathers.” Report to GBI.

ATLANTA Klavern No. 297, April 18, 1946 . Cyclops Roper read what was
purported to be a letter from Talmadge calling upon all Klansmen in the
state to get out and work for him “to save Georgia and white supremacy.”
Report to GBI.

ATLANTA, April 22, 1946. A mimeographed call went out to all Klansmen
urging them to attend a mass demonstration at Stone Mountain on May 9,
saying in part: “America is calling every white Man who has red blood,
into the fight. WHITE SUPREMACY is threatened on every hand. YOU
CANNOT FAIL.” Report to GBI.

ATLANTA Klavern No. 1, April 29, 1946. Dragon Green warned that

“n r, Jews, unionists, and Communists” were united against Talmadge,

and that the Klan would have to work hard to insure his victory in the
coming July 17 primary. Efforts to defeat Senator Bilbo in Mississippi with
Negro votes would be met “with all the strength the Klan has,” Dragon
Green said. Report to GBI.

STONE MOUNTAIN, May 9, 1946 . Some 1,000 Klansmen in a robed
ceremony inducted 300 new members from all over Georgia. This was the
Klan’s first major postwar crossburning demonstration. Associated Press,
May 9, 1946.

ATLANTA Klavern No. 1, June 3, 1946. Attendance up to 250 as a result
of Stone Mountain demonstration. Dragon Green read press stories quoting
Talmadge as saying he wanted “all white Georgians to be for Talmadge —
whether Ku Klux, Catholics, or Jews.” Green swore that if Talmadge

206 GENOCIDE

were elected “no n r will vote in a Georgia white primary again.” Rc|>«m

to GBI.

ATLANTA Klavern No. i, June io, 1946. Dragon Green explained that il
resolution adopted the previous week by a regional convention of the All
condemning a “secret, three-letter hate group,” was not aimed at the Khk
as reported by the press, but was directed against the CIO’s PAC. I In
explanation had been obtained by Hoke Gewinner, chairman of the Klim'l
own Kommittee to Investigate UnAmerican Activities, who received iL
explanation from an official at the AFL’s southern Headquarters. Report
to GBI.

SWAINSBORO, July 11, 1946. In a statewide radio address, Talmadge said,
“Wise Negroes will stay away from the white folk’s ballot boxes on July 1
We are the true friends of the Negroes, always have been, and alwayo
will be as long as they stay in the definite place we have provided fm
them.” Associated Press, July 1 1, 1946.

EATONVILLE, July 11, 1946, W. S. Hooten, chairman of the board 0!
registrars, announced that 20 per cent of Putnam County’s Negro registranh
had been purged “on grounds of incompetence due to lack of education,
intelligence, or character.” The purge procedure which then swept acron*
Georgia consisted of pro-Talmadge registrars serving thousands of Negm
registrants with sheriff’s summonses to appear (during working hours) m
“show cause” why they should not be dropped for “illiteracy, criminal
record, bad character,” etc. All who failed to appear were automatically
purged. Atlanta Constitution, July 12, 1946.

ELLAVILLE. Fifty percent of the county’s Negro registrants were purged
When some registrars resigned, new ones were appointed by Superior Court
Judge W. H. Harper, and the purge continued. Atlanta Constitution, July
12, 1946.

GAINESVILLE. Twenty-five percent of the Negro registrants were challenged
by attorney Frank B. Stow. Atlanta Constitution, July 12, 1946.

ATLANTA. During June, 1946, eighty-one Negro registrants were challenged
by attorney Ike Wingrow (who in 1940 had represented the East Poitn
Klan floggers in their clemency hearing before Talmadge). Atlanta Con
stitution.

BAXLEY. During June, 1946, in a hearing involving 400 challenged Negro
registrants, the four white complainants were asked to be more specifn
whereupon they amended their charge to claim that the Negroes “had noi
taken the proper oath.” When the Negroes’ attorney asked for a postpone
ment to review this new charge, he was granted five hours. When hr
rejected this offer, the board ordered all the Negroes purged. Atlanta
Constitution.

COLQUITT COUNTY. During June, 1946, when C. E. McLendon, chair
man of the board of registrars, objected to the purging of 800 Negroes, a
group of spectators petitioned Superior Court Judge C. H. Dukes to firr
McLendon. Judge Dukes did so, “in order to expedite the hearings.” Atlanta
Constitution.

SPAULDING COUNTY. During early July, 1946, after 180 Negroes had
been purged, further purging was postponed when C. R. Fossett, who had
made the challenges, admitted he had done so solely on the basis of the
Negroes’ handwriting. Atlanta Constitution.

LAMAR COUNTY. Early in jfuly, 1 946, one hundred Negroes purged, 150

APPENDIX

207

I more challenged. Atlanta Constitution .

Ul< >ULTRIE. Early in July, 1946, two hundred and ninety-four Negroes were
1 hallenged, but Registrar Bert Clark resigned after the fourth Negro^ had
l.ren called up; and the chairman adjourned the hearing because “There
I icons to be a difference of opinion as to what constitutes a person qualified
to vote.” Atlanta Constitution.

\ITL 1 NG COUNTY. On July 10, 1946, a week before the primary, U.S.
District Judge Frank H. Scarlett issued an order halting further purging in
Atkinson, Ben Hill, Pierce, and Coffee Counties, and ordered the rein-
.latement of 800 Negroes who had been purged in Appling County. The
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had charged
that more than 20,000 Negro registrants had been challenged in the state-
I wide purge, and had demanded that the U.S. Department of Justice take
action. However, the Department decided to maintain a “hands off” policy.
(Ccorgians were keenly aware that Senator Iheodore Bilbo in a radio
address at Jackson, Mississippi, on June 22 had called upon every red-
blooded American in Mississippi to resort to any means at their command”
io prevent Negroes from voting and that he had been re-elected over-
[ whclmingly.) Atlanta Constitution.

1 I DARTOWN, July IO, 1946. Four hundred and ninety-nine Negro regis-
I 1 rants were challenged. Atlanta Constitution.

• OCHRAN, July 12, 1946. In a radio address Talmadge charged that U.S.

District Attorneys were intimidating white people, and said, “Maybe it
I would not be inappropriate to warn some of these fellows to be careful. . . .

I lc repeated his warning to Negroes to stay away from the polls, for neither
the U.S. Attorneys nor Jimmy Carmichael (his opponent) will have a
| « orporal guard to back them up.” Associated Pvess, July 12, 1946*

I ITZGERALD, July 16, 1946. Notices were tacked on the doors of Negro

1 hurches reading “The first n r who votes in Georgia will be a dead

| n — r!” Atlanta Constitution, July 17, 1946.

ckliENVILLE, July 16, 1946. A fiery cross was burned (election eve).
Atlanta Constitution , July 17, 1946.

1,1 1 LA, July 16, 1946. A fiery cross was burned. Atlanta Constitution, July

17, 1046.

All, A, July iy, 1946. No Negroes voted, nor came to town to meet the
mail train as was their custom. Atlanta Constitution, July 18, 1946.
MANCHESTER, July iy, 1946. A state senator picketed the polls with a
diotgun as a warning to Negroes not to vote. Atlanta Constitution, July

18, 1946.

'.liORGIA, July iy, 1946. In many cities Negroes, and Negroes only, , were
arrested early on election day, on charges of carrying “dummy ballots” and
other alleged infringements of election laws. Stories of these arrests appeared
in afternoon papers across the state, and served as an effective deterrent
10 Negro voting. Atlanta Constitution, July 18, 1946.

' .BORGIA, July iy, 1946 . Talmadge elected governor; pledges to preserve
white primary by following lead of South Carolina, which abolished all
statutory references to primaries in the hope of circumventing Supreme
Court ruling that primaries had become instrumentalities of government.
Atlanta Constitution, July 18, 1946.

\ I’LANTA, August 8, 1946. Columbians, Inc. granted corporate charter by
State of Georgia. Attorney for incorporators Vester Ownby, founder of

20 #

GENOCIDE

We the People, Inc., former Cyclops of Klan Klavern 207. James L. Shlh
founder of Commoner Party and American Gentile Army, Columbian N
5. Ira Jett, Columbian No. 6, a member of KKK’s Klavalier Klub Ik
Gewinner, Columbian No. 9 and chief recruiter, chairm«»
s UnAmerican Kommittee. Atlanta Journal, August 9, 1946.

ATLANTA, August 26, 1946. Hoke Gewinner, speaking from sound tin
Columbian street meeting in front of Exposition Cotton Mills, called In,
organization on a block and precinct basis to “combat n r bloc votinii

an f, s f‘ Tbe , re are i ust two ways to fight these things— with ballots aVvl
with bullets. We are going to try ballots first.” Report to GBI.

ATLANTA, October 3, 1946. Homer Loomis, Columbian leader, at a pubic
meeting held in Klan Klavern No. 1 at 198 >/ 2 Whitehall Street, sat. I

Nowadays we hear a lot of talk about ‘Let’s give the n r poli.i, ,

equality, but not social equality.’ But don’t you know that, given poliii.nl
equality, one-third of the Georgia legislature would be black?” (Columbian-
a brownshirt terrorist band which, in addition to discouraging Nc«rn
voting, established armed patrols to maintain racial residential zoninu
bracking of Negroes and dynamiting of Negro homes w«
widely publicized throughout Georgia.) Columbian public meetings wr,.

h R d T7 ,n T th ur? a 3S C L Ur L th .°. USe ’ arran g ements being made by state legli
D° r u R ’ E ' L ' W bitworth, holder of Columbian card No. 5109; and at tin
Fairburn courthouse.) Report to GBI.

ATLANTA, October 8, 1946. West End Cooperative Corporation issued •

S ^ te ° f G t° rgla - Founded by Joseph M. Wallace, chairman ol

o' J „ , ^ 0U u n fxr K n mmitte ? and member of Havtra 2 97- According
o reports made by Wallace to the Klan, WECC designed to serve as fro,..

tor terrorizing Negroes who sought to establish homes in “white” neighhoi
hoods; the Klan s Housing Kommittee to be called on for direct action
when necessary. WECC published weekly West End Facts, contain!,,,
such statements as the following: “Southern Whites occupying that sup,,
position assigned them by the Creator are justifiably hostile to any r!„ .
that attempts to drag them down to its own level! Therefore let the New-
be wise in leaving the ballot in the hands of a dominant sympathetic race I
since he is far better off as a political eunuch in the house of his friend*
™ tr rampant in the halls of his enemies!” Similar sentiments voirc.l
at WECC mass meetings. Report to GBI.

A I r LA ^> Novernb < ; r tS, 1946. Herman Talmadge was featured speakci
at a birthday party given by the Klan for Dragon Green in the city a,., I,
orium. Klan guards triple-checked all guests, who numbered 1,500. Tal
madge was introduced as “the son of an illustrious father, who has tlir
courage of his convictions and is ready to fight for the preservation of mu
American traditions against Communists, foreign agitators, Negroes, Catho
lies, and Jews. Talmadge said he was “glad of the opportunity to speak
to organizations like this,” which he said are “destined to save America
tor Americans. He went on to say: “Your organization through its pown
and influence was of tremendous assistance in electing my father. My fathri
and I were among the first to point out the dangers of Negro voting, par
ticularly since they are easily controlled by a shrewder race.” Talmadcr
eulogized Dragon Green as a “splendid American of spotless character"
Green .spoke and concluded : “I believe in the Ku Klux Klan, and will

APPENDIX 209

I light for it and white supremacy with the last drop of my blood.” Report
I 10 GBI.

I \TLANTA, December 20, 1946. Eugene Talmadge died, 21 days before he

I was to have been inaugurated governor. Associated Press, December 20,

I >046.

VI LANTA Klavern No. 1, January 6, 1947. Klan support was pledged to
make Talmadge governor in his father’s stead as “the only hope for white
supremacy in Georgia.” A petition to this effect was launched with about
100 signatures from Klavern No. 1, to be circulated among all Klansmen

I in Georgia. Report to GBI.

ATLANTA, January 12, 1947- The Georgia legislature, dominated by pro-
Talmadge forces, refused to swear in lieutenant governor M. E. Thompson
•is Talmadge’s successor. Instead, it became clear that the legislature would
name Talmadge’s son Herman, who had received 697 write-in votes in
the general election (as the result of a last-minute drive inspired by his
lather’s illness) as governor. To strengthen the hand of the Talmadge forces,
die Klan sent out a statewide call for Klansmen to come to Atlanta and
pack the galleries. Klan stickers (see Exhibit Q) appeared on the Capitol
walls and the office of Governor Ellis Arnall. Associated Press, January 12,
1 947 *

\TLANTA, January 15, 1947. In a 2 A.M. vote, the legislature named

I Icrman Talmadge governor of Georgia, after hearing legislators such as
Jewel Crowe say on the assembly floor, “We are not going to turn Georgia

over to n rs, Rosen walds, and Wallaces.” Atlanta Constitution, January

16, 1947.

ATLANTA, January 16, 1947 . Marvin Griffin, unsuccessful Klan-backed
. andidate for lieutenant governor, was named adjutant by Talmadge, and
proceeded under cover of darkness to replace the lock on the governor’s
office. Arnall, locked out, declared that Talmadge’s claim was based “purely
on inheritance, but Georgia is not a monarchy.” Arnall insisted that he
would continue to serve as governor until Thompson was sworn in to
replace him. To this Talmadge in a statewide broadcast said: “There’s a

II r named Father Divine in New York City who thinks he’s God, but

1 hat don’t make him God.” Atlanta Constitution, January 17, 1947.

VI LANTA, March 19, 1947 . Georgia’s supreme court ruled Talmadge out,
and Thompson in. Leaving the governor’s office with Bible in hand, Tal-
madge said, “This case will be taken to the court of last resort, the people
of Georgia.” Atlanta Constitution, March 20, 1947.

\TI ,ANTA Klavern No. 1, March 24, 1947 . Dragon Green ordered all Klans-
men to begin campaigning for Talmadge for governor in the 1948 elec-
tion. The Klansmen were ordered to “appeal even to Catholics and Jews
«m the basis of white supremacy, but don’t let them know you’re a Klans-
man, because they kfiow we are sworn against them.” Report to GBI.

M I LLEDGEVILLE, April iq, 1947. Klan chartered with 147 members,
headed by Reverend Bomer as Exalted Cyclops. Report to GBI.

I IANCOCK COUNTY, May 5, 1947 . A Klansman named Phillips from this
< ounty, speaking in Atlanta Klavern No. 1, said Negroes constituted a
majority in his county, and consequendy he was organizing the Klan there
as the only means of keeping them disfranchised. Report to GBI.

McRAE, August 21, 1947 . George Mobley, white, was beaten after attend-
ing an ariti-Talmadge political rally here in Talmadge’s home town. Asked

210

GENOCIDE

r ar °? rt rrants ’ y° b i ey re P iied ’ “ Aft « m > 1 ^4

Augmt 22 1947 ’ ”” d ° 1 ^ ^ S ° t0 '” Constitun,

NoVember ’ 7 ‘ * 947 - Police chief Ben Watkins assured Dr,,
^ J f ’ m J es P onse t ° a L Klan demand, that a Progressive Party rally sdt.

Si"r, 9 7 ld s ' 8r ' sa,e ‘' by law offic " s - aw cJ **~

G “ L M Novembe J 2 9 . * 947 - Statewide klavalkade staged with rol*

ATT AMTA b n ning / 3t ChlC0 P ee Ml11 Village. Report to GBL 1

AiLANTA, December 7, i )47 . Inflammatory Klan posters appeared call,
for defeat of Mayor Hartsfield for having" employed 4 gm P olke ,,'

SKX^rfr ° f decent , me " Ii X vho are afraid of pressure from .1
fewiTh Pn C ° mm " ce ’ th f CIO > Ge otgia Academy of Social Scion.,

December ^94^ ’ ' C ° mmunist W-” ^anta Joust

T ’ I948 'r h a Ad r ta Constit “ tion Prominently repo.u
fol 1 ovv in cr H , v’° ^ W ’ 5 °° Coffee County citizens qualified to vote in il.
followmg dayspnmary, only 175 were Negroes (Exhibit E).

Khn!^ A K aV o em ^°- /’ ]anuar y 5 - mS- “The No. t job of all Geoiu.

Green said' T 48 t (! S ^ ?“ tl0R of Herman Talmadge as governor,” Dra>

Smost everv n°iJhr » H d ’ 3 “ hot year ’” with “something don,,

almost every night He called for the total “Kluxing” of Georgia throiJ

the establishment of at least one KKK Klavern in each of the state’s o„

Atlanta" kT tlme m the Septcmber 8th primary. Report to GBI. #

KL^Jen to co^du Feb / Uary 2 ’ z 94 *- Dragon Green ordered all

Klansmen to conduct house to house canvasses for Talmadge saving “I I,

» gbi* d0 " ,g a good iob ,ha! wa » f “ Ed c ™"p * n tZ:

uary J,/ g 4 S. Cross burned before home of high school
coach Walter Bowland “I'm afraid of the Ku Klux, and would advise y
to do whatever they tell you,” the sheriff said. Bowland was fired by tlu
- 3 Sch00 ‘ board ’ and forced to leave town. Associated Press, Febn.a.y

S ^ INS ^? R °’ February 4 , m 8. Cross burned on courthouse lawn an, I
iS 9 robed Kluxers staged parade. Governor M. E. Thompson asked

3 'm l et P° nstratl0n > replied, “I know of no law for stopping a peace, I, I,
ssemHy. T he mayor claimed the Klansmen were non-reside* s-Tc 2
the Swainsboro klavern was chartered March 24, 1047, with 126 cha
members. Associated Press, February 4 1048

SA Dod!e N C H ’ Febrmry 'I 48 ' A Federal £ rand jury refused to indict two

-SSfcc&SFT ^ wi,h pu,ging '' 3 °° N ' g,0 “ fr »to *•

, March 1,1 948 • Klansmen burned cross on courthouse lawn on

WRICHTSVTm" F At ir ta , ConsMution ’ Maf ch 2, 1948.

rH | T T S Y ILLE, ^ a,r ^ 2 ' * 948 - Tbree bund red robed Klansmen parade, I
round Johnson County square, burned cross on courthouse Zn on et
tion eve. Said Dragon Green: “Whenever the Negro takes his place at t ,

^ r,he s h ht h U orc ' of ™ wm

cne streets ot the South. There were 5,200 whites registered in if,

U) Un No an N 400 Negr °4 S> ? Ut ° f 3 t0taI Negr0 P°P u,ati °n of 4,500 (Exhil ,
U). No Negroes voted the next day. (Two weeks earlier tho John.so!!

APPENDIX

21 1

I County Democratic Committee adopted an oath requiring all voters to
pledge allegiance to segregation laws; but the oath was dropped following
' the adverse decision by Federal Judge Waites Waring in South Carolina./

| Atlanta Constitution, March 3, 1948.

I nLUMBUS, March 12, 1948. Klan staged robed klavalkades to Pine Moun-
tain cross-burning ceremony. Atlanta Constitution, March 15, 1948. (Ex-
hibit W.)

JACKSON, March 22, 1948. Newspapers reported that the Klan planned a
[ ilrmonstration on eve of Butts County primary.

IITFERSONVILLE, March 20, 1948. Crosses burned on courthouse lawn on
i Saturday and Sunday nights before Jefferson County primary Monday.
Small coffins labeled “KKK” also placed on Negroes’ doorsteps. Only 150
Negroes voted. (Exhibit U.) Atlanta Constitution, March 21, 1948.

1 ' >NERS, March 23, 1948. Four crosses burned on eve of Rockdale County
primary. One cross bore placard reading, “This cross burned with county
Ittel oil.” Of the 3,600 registrants in county, only 240 were Negroes. (Exhibit
T.) Atlanta Constitution, March 24, 1948.

I AWRENCEVILLE, March 23, 1948 . Cross burned on eve of Gwinnett
County primary. Of 12,000 registrants, only 800 were Negroes, Atlanta
Constitution, March 24, 1948.

< OLUMBUS, April S K 1948. KKK “white supremacy” propaganda leaflets
chopped from airplane over Negro neighborhoods on eve of primary. Re-
1 port to GBI.

AUGUSTA, April 13, 1948. In a robed ceremony conducted in municipal
park building from which public was barred, Klan inducted 100 new 7 mem-
bers. Atlanta Constitution, April 14, 1948.

ATLANTA, April 13, 1948. Joe Berry, 23-year old white war veteran, was
Hogged by Klan’s “Black Raiders.” Investigation revealed the Raiders had
also flogged L. J. Martin, white carpenter of Atlanta, and Mary and Limon
Gates, Negroes, of South Georgia. Atlanta Journal, April 16, 1948.
LAURENS COUNTY, May 20, 1948 . Eight Negro citizens — including four
college graduates, three ministers, and a school teacher — sued for $440,000
damages for having been purged from the voting list. Named as defendants
were Superior Court Judge Earl Camp; State Legislator Herschel Lovett:
two candidates for the Georgia Senate; and members of the board of
registrars and county commission. Since November, 1,800 Negroes, repre-
senting 75 percent of the county’s Negro registrants, had been purged.
(Exhibit D.) Atlanta Constitution, May 29, 1948.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, May 27, 1948. Scorched bits of paper were
mailed to Negroes the day before election, reading: “U beter stay at work
lomorro — kkk.” Report to GBI.

ATLANTA Klavern No. 1, June 7, 1948. Klectoken initiation fee reduced
from $ to to $5 (fc facilitate Klan-building for political purposes. Mass
demonstration announced for Stone Mountain July 23, reported 100,000
announcements sent out. Dragon Green reported $25,000 set aside for re-
printing Ideals of the Ku Klux Klan, which says in part: “This is a
White Man’s organization, exalting the Caucasian Race and teaching the
doctrine of White Supremacy. . . . This is a Gentile organization, and as
such has as its mission the interpretation of the highest ideals of the White,

Gentile peoples Our forefathers founded this as a Protestant country

and . . . our purpose is to reestablish and maintain it as such. ... This

21 2

GENOCIDE

Republic was established by White Men. It was established few Wlm
Men. Every effort to wrest from White Men the management of its aifan
in order to transfer it to the control of blacks or any other color, or to pcriilli
them to share in its control, is an invasion of our sacred constitutional jn,
rogatives and a violation of divinely established laws. One of the sad lath
in American political life is the readiness of so many politicians to sell ig-
noble white birthright for a mess of black pottage. They would betray tin* It
race in order to win a few black votes. We would not rob the colored poj.t*
iation of their rights, but we demand that they respect the rights of th|
White Race in whose country they are permitted to reside. When it comfl
to the point that they cannot and will not respect those rights, they muii
be reminded that this is a White Man’s country, so that they will seek hit
themselves a country more agreeable to their tastes and aspirations.” Report
to GBI.

ATLANTA, Klavern No. i, June 14, 1948. Dragon Green announced thll
the goal of at least one klavern in each of Georgia’s 159 counties before ilir
September 8 primary had already been reached. Report to GBI.

MACON, June 14, 1948. Cross burned in front of home of Dr. D. W. Walton
Negro supporter of Progressive Party. Atlanta Constitution, June 15, 19^1

HAPEVILLE, June 18, 1948. Cross burned in front of, and shotgun lii< >
over, a private home. Atlanta Constitution, June 19, 1948,

COLUMBUS, June 28, 1948. Corporate charter granted “Original Southern
Klans, Inc.” by State of Georgia, through Secretary of State Ben Fortscili
and Judge T. Hicks Fort. The latter, who keynotes Talmadge convention
of the Georgia Democratic Party, said he could “find no evidence of illc^il
intent.” The newly-incorporated Klan opened an office in Columbus with
a neon sign, and at a public demonstration and crossburning said it wmi
“dedicated to the defense of Protestant Americanism, white supremacy, an-l
the prevention of political dominance of any inferior minority group'
(Exhibit F.)

MACON, June 30, 1948 . Cross burned in front of home of Larkin Marslull.
Negro Progressive Party candidate for the U.S. Senate. Atlanta Constitution
July 1, 1948.

STONE MOUNTAIN, July 23, 1948. Three thousand robed Klansmen, con
vening in cars from all over Georgia and 14 other states, inducted 700 new
members under a 30-foot fiery cross. Talmadge stickers on majority nl
Georgia cars. Dragon Green extolled Talmadge as “the only man in tin
gubernatorial race who believes 100 percent in white supremacy.” Thr
Dragon said again that blood would flow in the streets if Federal civil riglil*
laws are enacted. Atlanta Journal, July 24, 1948.

COLUMBIA, S. C., August 9, *94 the eve of the Democratic primary,
the Klan burned fiery crosses in front of a Negro church where a meet 114'
was in progress on the mechanics of voting, Pittsburgh Courier, Augmi
11, 1948.

ROSSVILLE, August 21, 1948. A crowd of 7,000 turned out to see a Klan
demonstration featuring robed horses. “No law that will ever be draftnl
will make us accept the Negroes as our equals,” Dragon Green said. “II
it is tried, the grandsons of Klan members who routed the carpetbagger
in i860 will do the same job over again.” Associated Press, August 21, 194H

SANDERSVILLE, September 1, 1948 . Dragon Green told a gathering <.l
several thousand Klansmen that “The Klan is only interested in preserving

APPENDIX

213

I white supremacy, which is based on the fact that the white man is a
natural-born leader.” Associated Press, September 1, I 94^-
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., September 1 , 1948. A central Florida Klan KlavaP
klade touched off twelve crosses in twelve Negro communities. Associated
Press, September 1, 1948.

(iRIFFIN, September 6, 1948 . Two days before election, 558 Negroes purged
from voting list. Atlanta Constitution, September 7, 1948.

PERRY, ^September 7, 1948 . Crosses burned on election eve. Atlanta Consti-
tution, September 8, 1948. . ^ . , „ ,

lUJLLOCK COUNTY, September 7, 1948 . Miniature coffins labelled KKK
appeared on Negroes’ doorsteps. Atlanta Constitution, September 8, 1948.
VALDOSTA, September 7, 1948. Two crosses burned in Negro sections;
“KKK” coffins placed on Negro doorsteps. Atlanta Constitution, Septem-
l>er 8, 1948.

AUGUSTA, September 8, 1948. Election officials handling Negro voting at
segregated booths slowed voting to less than one per fifteen minutes by asking
all manner of questions. (Exhibit X.) Atlanta Constitution, September 9,

1948. . _

ATLANTA, September 8, 1948. Here and elsewhere m state, Negroes ar-
rested early on election day for carrying “dummy ballots” and other alleged
infringements, the arrests and news stories in afternoon papers deterring
many Negro voters. Atlanta Journal, September 8, 1948.

V PLANT A, September 8, 1948 . Herman Talmadge elected governor. ‘The
people of Georgia have spoken in no uncertain terms of what they think
of the so-called civil rights program,” he said. Dragon Green one of first
to congratulate Talmadge at campaign headquarters. Associated Press,

September 8, 1948. ,

MOUNT VERNON, September 9, 1948 . Isaiah Nixon, Negro, shot down in
his home for having voted in the Democratic primary. Associated Press,

September 8, 1948. <<A .

ATLANTA Klavern No. 1, October 25, 1948. Dragon Green said: At last

the Klan has a friend in the governor’s chair. We’re sitting on top of the
world and nothing can stop us. Herman has assured me of his cooperation
at ail times, and has promised to go all the way down the road to protect
the Klan. If you ever need anything from him, be sure to make it known
that you are a friend of Sam Green’s.” Green went on to say that The
Dixiecrats are the only ones who are for white supremacy and against social
equality — the same principles the Klan has always fought for.* He said he
was ordering all Klansmen in the U.S. to work for and vote for Dixiecrat
nominee Strom Thurmond in the November 2 election. Report to GBI
I.EESBURG, Fla., October 28, 1948. The Klan distributed propaganda leaf-
lets warning that ir would stage a klavalklade through eight surrounding
towns on election eve. Associated Press, October 28, 1948. <(

ATLANTA Klavern No. i, November 1, 1948. Cliff Vittur. chief Ass-
Tearer” (sic) of the KKK’s Klavalier Klub flog squad, reported on the
demonstration at Vidalia October 28. He said the Klansmen, numbering
300 from all parts of Georgia, were met at the city limits by Toombs
County Sheriff R. E. Gray, the police chief and assistant chief, who es.
corted the parade into town. These three officials, as well as all Vidalia
officials except the mayor, were Klansmen, Vittur said. The Klan would
either convert the mayor, or defeat him in the next election, he added. At

GENOCIDE

the demonstration, Dragon Green broadcast over a south Georgia radii
network. Acting Cyclops Ransom urged all Klansmen to turn out thi
following day (election) and “work for Thurmond as they had for 'fill
madge.” Nine automobiles were pledged from Klavern i to carry Thurmond
voters to the polls. Report to GBI.

TUSKEGEE, Ala., November i, 1948. The Klan touched off fiery croswu
in front of the courthouse, and at the highway leading to Tuskegee Infti
tute. Associated Press , November 1, 1948.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., November 1, 1948. Many Negroes received threat
through the U.S. mails, warning them not to vote. Associated Press, Novcm
ber 1, 1948.

MT. DORA, Fla., November 3, 1948. The promised Klan klavalklldt
touched off election eve crosses in Negro districts from Mt. Dora i.
Miami. Associated Press, November 3, 1948.

LYONS, November 20, 1948. Robert Mallard, leader in the movement m
increase Negro voting, ambushed by robed band and shot while driving
from church to his home in Toombs County. Associated Press, Novcm
ber 28, 1948.

ATLANTA Klavern No. i y November 29, 1948. Atlanta policeman “Itchy
Finger Nash, recipient of a Klan award for killing ‘13 Negrorv
declared that Governor Talmadge, who took office two weeks ago, had
given the Georgia Bureau of Investigation orders “not to believe everything

the n rs tell them” about the killing of Robert Mallard. A couple of

days ago Dragon Green released to the press signed statements which had
been forwarded to him by the Kleagle of Vidalia, in which Sheriff Gray
(he who allegedly as a Klansman gave escort to the Klan parade less than
a month before the murder of Mallard), Sergeant J. W. Robertson of tin
GBI, ^ and Police Chief T. L. Graham of Lyons all expressed the “belief
that “the KKK had no part in killing this mean Negro.” The Atlanta
Journal suggested that die murder had been committed by Negroes din
guised as Klansmen, and went on to say, “Mallard was an uppity Northern
Negro, of bad character and habits, who had no business around here."
(Mallard was a substantial dealer in mortician’s supplies, married to a school
teacher.) Report to GBI.

ATLANTA, Klavern No. 1, December 6, 1948. Dragon Green boasted th.n
the GBI had given the KKK a “clean bill of health” in the Mallard case
He said Klansmen throughout U.S. were being invited to Macon demon
tration December 10. Pistol bullets were raffled at J1.00 each, the proceeds
going to a Klan relief fund; the bullets were then presented to policeman
Nash, with the comment, k He knows what to do with them.” Report in
GBI.

MACON, December 10, 1948. Several thousand masked Klansmen demon
strated xn the city auditorium, and afterwards burned two fiery crosses.
Mercer College students were prohibited by Police Chief Ben Watkins from
distributing anti-Klan pamphlets under a local ordinance banning litem
ture distribution which creates a “fire hazard”; at the same time, Klansmen
were permitted to distribute Klan propaganda and application blanks
Associated Press, December io, 1948.

ATLANTA, Decembei • 4, 1948. All seven Klaverns in the city participated
in a masked parade led by Fulton County road patrolmen as a motorcycle
escort. Atlanta Constitution , December 5, 1948.

APPENDIX

215

ATLANTA Klavern No. i, December 13, 1948. Dragon Green ordered all
Klansmen “not to take the law into their own hands” without first con-
sulting him. He said he was available at “any hour of the day or night
to “discuss anything that needs to be straightened out.” Report to GBI.
U'LANTA, December 18, 1948. In an Associated Press dispatch published
diroughout Georgia under the heading: “GEORGIA MAPS PLAN TO
KAR MOST NEGROES FROM POLLS” it was said: “A ‘white supremacy
program designed to keep 80 percent of Georgia’s Negroes from the ballot
box had been advanced today by Gov. Talmadge and his legislative lead-
ers. House speaker Fred Hand, who will guide the measure in the legisla-
ture which convenes in January, outlined the proposal at an informal con-
ference of lawmakers. . . . The plan would start out by wiping all the
present voters’ registration lists off the books. A new statewide registration
would follow with emphasis on strict ‘educational qualification’ for voting
The program, Hand explained, would be similar to Alabama s Boswell
amendment, which requires prospective voters to “read and explain” the
constitution to the satisfaction of registrars. Talmadge was not present at
the conference but the program fitted in with his campaign assertion that
“if we can't have an all-white primary in Georgia, then we want one just
as white as we can get it.” Hand said the Georgia plan would ‘hold water’
—be constitutional. It is necessary, he continued, because 46 Georgia counties
have more Negroes than white persons. Atlanta Constitution, December

ATLANTA, February 11, 1949. The Georgia senate passed a bill similar to
one already passed by the house, wiping out the 1,200,000 names on
Georgia’s voting lists. According to the AP, February 11, 1 949 . the measure
gave “certain discretionary powers to boards of county registrars in deter-
mining an applicant’s right to the ballot.” Besides requiring applicants
10 be able to read and write the state and national constitutions “intelligibly
or legibly,” the bill provided a list of 30 questions, 10 of^ which must be
answered correctly by anyone failing the constitution test. “Gov. Talmadge
lias said over and over again that the re-registration bill is aimed at ending
bloc voting by Negroes,” the AP reported.

y. Attached hereto as Exhibit “Map A” is a map of the State of Georgia
on which is indicated the geographic location of all of the acts set forth in
Paragraph 8 hereof. The said map will be authenticated by the witness and
offered into evidence, if permitted. The acts are symbolized in each case by
I he designation “X.” Wherever said act is overtly and directly involved with
an election, the symbol “X” is accompanied by the letter “E.”

10. Attached hereto as Exhibits A through Z are photostatic copies of in-
limidatory propaganda releases, threats sent through the United Sattes
mails, news stories, ?nd other documentary materials having the intent and/or
,-IIect of deterring the great majority of the Negro citizens of Georgia from
voting in the Congressional and other elections; which documents would be
duly authenticated and offered as exhibits in connection with the testimony
of this witness, if permitted.

xi. That Mr. Henderson Lanham, first elected to Congress in 1946 as well
as ail of the other alleged Representatives in Congress from the State of
( icorgia, was elected as such as a direct result of the illegal actions which
are mentioned above, and that therefore the re-election of the said Henderson

2l6

GENOCIDE

2zsz&!~i its sri •

Respectfully submitted,

George W. Crockett, Jr.

Vito Marcantonio
Ralph E. Powe

Attorneys for the Defendant

Document B

can institutions-** use of the charge of “rape” for^poliSand^

/or ra^ is reserved virtually exclusively for the Neom senteme

gtvtng the political genesis of that fact. g P P as well m

IS THE PUNISHMENT OF RAPE EQUALLY ADMINISTERED
TO NEGROES AND WHITES
IN THE STATE OF LOUISIANA?*

A Study by Dr. Oakley C. Johnson. 3564 Virgil Blvd, New O, Icons ,2, In 1
For coniEniEncE, this Study is prESEntrd „„d e . Bye hE.ding, as Mows:

" Th ' <* “““■■ons in Louisian.

/ Tfi ,-, P om 1900 to 1950; and some data from old prison records

compa,iL'.^E“JJ ra “S” S ““ Pcnitcnt ‘ ar ys Angola. La. fo, ,

B l“^lawft“ “ d “ ‘™ !i »* C “ Waa ■«« * '

R-SuEl,^ t ^“t“ot O^™ 1 *'•

sares#*" s - — » 4 1

_lM^'^^iS^ c ^ 1 3 icid, for ' ,hi '' J

in cooperation with th°Youis^l a B ^ Civil p tt0rncys ^ lvin B * J° n « and Leroy White,

case of Paul Washington, Je“ w Study ~ S

to die in the electric for alleged rane rommi?Jw u d World ft War H veteran, sentenced
after his discharge from the Army after 21 months'” ' was crested shordy
the death cell of the Jefferson PariS V bc “ coofiaed in
maintains his innocence. , . . Not onlv did Pml w L S ? C 5 tbat tlmc - Washington
his five brothers also-every one of Lml . Washington fight ,n World War II, bu.
Velma, and his 3-^old^ daughter EfiaX ln^n ^ • r “ ed , for “ s ' • ■ • His wife, 1
staunchly defend him. . . . Velma Washington's brother Leonard wts inched

APPENDIX

217

Exhibit I: Crime Statistics

According to the census of 1940, the population of Louisiana was 2,363,880,
including 849,303 Negroes, the latter constituting 35.9 percent of the total. 1

While we cannot draw from population statistics exact mathematical conclu-
sions about the extent of crime in any section of the population, we are never-
theless justified in assuming that, by and large, the proportion of crime among
whites and Negroes, and the corresponding punishments, would roughly
inrrespond to their proportion of the population. This would be modified
l>y the relative social conditions of the two groups, and perhaps other factors;
hut if Negroes constitute 35.9 percent of the population, they would commit
ti not too disproportionate share of the crimes perpetrated, and would receive
.• not too disproportionate share of the punishments therefor.

In the attached list of persons punished for rape in this state for the years
1900 to 1950, inclusive — a full half-century — there have been, according to the
records in the office of the Secretary of State at Baton Rouge, exactly 39 execu-
tions for rape (hanging up to 1941; electrocution thereafter). Of those put
to death, all but two have been Negro. One white man, who confessed to the
rape of a 17-year-old white girl who had been crippled from birth, was a
railroad worker, Thomas Brady, not a native of Louisiana, and was hanged
m 1906; the other white man was a foreigner, Lazar Mehogrvich, hanged in
1907 for the rape of a white woman. Since 1907, a period of 43 years , not one
white rapist has been put to death, though 29 Negroes have been.

Of the convicted rapists sentenced to death whose sentence was commuted
to life imprisonment, two white men — one-half of all the white rapists sen-
tenced to death — had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
It is very difficult to secure commutation for a Negro convicted of rape. The
17-year-old Negro boy, Lewis Young, in the parish of St. John the Baptist,
was hanged October 11, 1907, regardless of his youth. Furthermore, the pun-
ishment for “aggravated rape” is meted out no matter how suppositious the
(barge; Sam Wright, a Negro, was hanged in 1900 for “Breaking and enter-
ing in the night time, and with a dangerous weapon, and assault with intent
to commit rape”; and Bob Burton, also a Negro, was hanged in 1905 for
“Breaking and entering dwelling house in night time with intent to commit
rape.” Similarly with George Steward (1907), Tobe Stevens (1908), Emanuel
Johnson (1909), Henry Slaughter (1914), Jimmie Johnson (1929).

In addition to the number of Negroes officially put to death by the State of
Louisiana, there were three others put to death in this state by the United
States Government, during World War II, in 1942: Corporal John Walter
Bordenave, 29; Private Lawrence Mitchell, 18; and Private Richard Philip
Adams, 25. They are added to the total in the attached list because their
punishment took plaje on Louisiana soil and by means of the state’s portable
electric chair, loaned for the purpose. These three make a total of 40 Negroes
put to death for rape in this state since 1900, as compared to 2 white men.

The question is: Can we find an explanation for this surprising difference
by studying the legal, constitutional, and social history of this state?

1) The 1950 census gives Louisiana a total population of 2,683,51 6, but there is no
breakdown into racial categories. That is why the 1940 census figures are used here.
There is no reason to suppose that the percentages in the recent census would differ mate-
rially from the 1940 census.

2l8

GENOCIDE

addendum: Following the table of executions for rape during 1900-1950 »»
a selection of old rape records from the period 1866-1899 of the Louisian#
State Penitentiary at Angola, La. The following facts are clear from an exami
nation of these old records:

1) From Civil War days until the consolidation of white political
control, punishment for rape was imprisonment only, never death; par
doning was frequent; and a differentiation was made between “rape"
and “intent to rape.”

2) Race differences were noted for the purpose of description, bin
had not yet hardened into caste differences. 3) After the solidification
of white rule politically, the setting up of the death penalty for rapr
gave opportunity to return to virtual implied re-enactment of the Black
Code with its differentiation between punishment for whites and pun
ishment for Negroes.

WHITES CONVICTED OF RAPE AND
SENTENCED TO DEATH

(From recorded death warrants in the office of the
Secretary of State at Baton Rouge)

Name

Parish

Date Set for
Execution

Commuted

James Hebert
alias

Frederick Hebert

Cameron

9/11/1903
(Not Hanged)

10/27/1903
Life Imprisonment

Thomas Brady
alias

Thomas C. Braden

Rapides

Hanged 12/7/1906

Lazar Mehogrvich
alias

George Norris

Orleans

Hanged 8/9/1907

William Braxton

Beauregard

6/14/1918
(Not Hanged)

Life Imprisonment
6/14/1918

Total Number of Whites Executed: 2; Commuted: 2

NEGROES CONVICTED OF RAPE AND
SENTENCED TO DEATH

(From recorded death warrants in the
office of the Secretary of State in Baton Rouge)

Name

Parish

Sam Wright

Jefferson

Will Farmer

Caddo

Moses D. Lewis

Orleans

Amos Holmes

Iberia

alias

Oliver Holmes

William Young

Richland

Bob Burton

Lincoln

Date Set for

Execution Commuted

Hanged 2/9/1900
Hanged 9/7/1900
(After one reprieve)

Hanged 9/23/1904
Hanged 7/7/1905

Hanged 5/11/1906
Hanged 8/4/1905

appendix

Name

Ed Williams
George Steward
alias Montgomery
Lewis Young
Tobe Stevens
Charles Madison
Squire Hawkins

Emanuel Johnson
Bud Davis
Henry Slaughter

( Icorge Cotton
Summa Levine
Peter Bouy
Preston Miles
Lucius Brown
Arthur Williams

I .aodis Lincoln
(Jus Bracy
Willie Johnson
alias

Willie Kelly

Jimmie Johnson
Bel ward McKay
William Irwin Virgeto
l Ienry Wilson
John Henry Lee
alias Buddy Lee
Jim Edwards

Levi Hicks
Dave Johnson
Willie Larkin
William Hamilton
Anthony Wilson

Parish
Ascension
St. Tammany

St. John the Baptist
Calcasieu
Calcasieu
Rapides

Vermilion

Ouachita

Allen

Calcasieu

Avoyelles

Vermilion

West Feliciana

Terrebonne

Rapides

Vermilion

Vernon

Orleans

Natchitoches

Orleans

Richland

Catahoula

Jefferson Davis

Caddo

Orleans

East Baton Rouge
East Baton Rouge
Madison

Date Set for
Execution
Hanged 2/2/1906
Hanged 7/19/1907

Hanged 10/11 /i9°7
Hanged 4/24/1 90 8
Hanged 3/5/1909

10/15/1909

(Not Hanged)

Hanged 10/8/1909

Hanged 12/17/1909
Hanged 10/2/19M
(After one reprieve)
Hanged 11/6/1914
Hanged 12/17/ x 9^5
Hanged 11/2/1917
Hanged 6/28/ 19
Hanged 8/8/ 19*9

12/24/19 20

(Not Hanged)
Hanged 2/25/1921
Hanged 4/22/1921
Hanged 8/6/ 1926

Hanged 7/26/1929
Hanged 10/4/1929
Hanged 10/4/ : 9 2 9
Hanged 1/3/1930
Hanged 1 / 1 9/ 1 93 2

Commuted

11/9/1909

Life Imprisonment

10/26/192°

Life Imprisonment

t/Wt<y 22 1/21/1932

fNot Hanged) Imprisonment Hospit

(Not Hangen; ^ Criminal Insane

Hanged 1 0/19 / 1 934
Hanged 3/31/1939

Electrocuted 9/9/ 194 2
Electrocuted 12/3/194 2

Electrocuted 3/6/1944

William Ayers
Jesse Perkins
Edward Spriggs, Jr.
L. C. Loyd

Edward Sanford

Winn

East Baton Rouge

Iberville

Tangipahoa

East Baton Rouge

Electrocuted 6/28/1946
Electrocuted 7/ 1 8/1 947
Electrocuted 6/25/ 1948
To have been
electrocuted 3/11/ *949
(Found dead in cell, a
supposed suicide)
Electrocuted 12/1/195°

Total Number of Negroes Executed: 37; Commuted: 3

Corporal John Walter
Bordenave, 29
Private Richard
Philip Adams, 25
Private Lawrence
Mitchell, 18

New Orleans, La.
Columbus, Ohio
Baldwin, Mich.

Electrocuted 10/ 30/ 194 2
(AtU.S. Army camp)
Electrocuted 10/30/1942
(AtU.S. Army camp)
Electrocuted 10/30/194 2
(AtU.S. Army camp)

Total Number of Negroes Executed in Louisiana
During 1900-1950 for Alleged Rapt.: 40

GENOCIDE

SUPPLEMENT FROM OLD ANGOLA PRISON RECORDS-
otes from the “Register of Convicts Received” from Feb. 13, l8 66,

O Dec. 29, 1889, listing 9,073 Convicts

then 1876, fhen from *1885* and finS^from^S?^’ ^ fr ° m l866 ' 7 '
years). The crime is either “rW’T . iT? ] 889 ( omittm g the intervening

intent to commit rape ” Note dfffe 00 • ^ ed ln l l ' s list) or “Assault with
mit rape. Note difference in punishment between the two.

Name
Jesse Wiley
Edward Hague

Description

Black

Theodore Coppersmith
Thomas May
Adolph Withman
Henry Graham
Henry Clay

Fair

Black

“Grieffc”

Date Sentenced
and Punishment
11/9/1866— Life

12/10/1 866 — 2 yrs.
(“Assault with intent”)
7/22/1867— Life
7/22/1867— Life
7/22/1867— Life
1/29/1868— Life
3/9/1868— Life

Nicholas Anderson

Owen Scott
Paul Charles

William Alonzo

John Jones
alias Jack Jones
Henry Williams

Julien Moses

John Baptiste
Young Mclver

William Josephine

Charles Alexander
Frank Reed

Henry Stokes

Pat Scott

Henry Miller

William Johnson

Mulatto

Black

“Dk. Mulatto”

Black

6/2/ 1 876 — 2 yrs.
(“Assault with intent”)
6/4/1876— Life
6/1 6/ 1 876 — 2 yrs.
(“Assault with intent”)
6/20/1786 — 2 yrs.
(“Assault with intent”)
4/30/1885— Life

Black

5/5/1885 — 1 year
(“Assault with intent”)
6/ 1 9/1 885 — 6 months
(“Assault with intent”)
6/19/1885— Life
8/14/1 885 — 10 yrs.

Black

“Dk. Griff”
Mulatto

Fair

“Dk. Griff”

Black

3/ 1 5/ 1 889 — 6 yrs., 1 mo.
(“Assault with intent”)
4/13/1889— Life

10/ 20/ 1889 — 2 yrs.
(“Assault with intent”)
11/2/ 1889 — 2 yrs.
(“Assault with intent”)
10/20/1889 — 2 yrs.
(“Assault with intent”)
12/14/1889 — 1 yr.
(“Assault with intent”)
12/14/ 1889 — 2 yrs.
(“Assault with intent”)

Pardon

5/5/1873

4/25/1871

7/25/1871

3/8/1884

3/8/1878

6/19/1891

2/25/1893

2/15/1891

9/30/1899

Exhibit II: Legal History

ttzvss d 0 fz p ? hmem

Negro slaves which was d^ffer.nr f ‘‘“VV C0 L de for the punishment of
today the careful classification of '•£?

APPENDIX

22 1

and “simple” — or merely “carnal knowledge” — for white offenders provides
1 he mechanism for carrying on what was formerly explicitly provided by law
namely, the inflicting of severer penalties on black men than on white. Ver
bally, the laws have changed; but the old practice of differential punishments
having become well established for more than a century, now continues undei
the disguise of verbal equality.

Louisiana as a colony was at various times under French and Spanish domi
nation, and these colonial regimes have left legal imprints on the law of thii
state. Louisiana was discovered first by the Spanish in 1541 but setded by the
French around 1682, and Negro slaves were imported on or before 1719. Bj
1724, Louisiana had its Black Code, set up by Governor Jean Baptiste le Moyne
de Bienville. Louisiana became a territory of the United States in 1805 and a
state in 1812, but it \ept its Black Code.

In Orleans Laws, 1804-05, and the Acts of Louisiana, 1806-07 (Louisiana
State Law Library), we have the “Acts passed at the First Session of the
Legislative Council of the Territory of Orleans,” which provide for the pun-
ishment of rape: “every person . . . duly convicted of any manner of rape’
shall suffer “imprisonment at hard labor for life,” and any accessory to thii
crime shall “suffer the same kind of punishment” as the “principal offender/
(pp. 416-454, Chapter 50, An Act for the Punishment of Crimes and Mis-
demeanors.) Section 33 provides that procedure be “according to and ir
conformity with the common law of England !' (My emphasis. — o.c.j.) Bui
Section 47 of this same Act (p. 450) specifically states “That nothing hereir
before contained shall be construed to extend to any slave or slaves, but thal
every slave accused of any crime shall be punished according to the laws o)
Spain for regulating her colonies.” (My emphasis — o.c.j.)

The Acts of Louisiana, 1806-07, Chapter 33, p. 150, contain what is callec
the “Black Code, An Act Prescribing the rules and conduct to be observec
with respect to Negroes and other Slaves of this Territory.” Section 18 of thi:
Act declared “That the condition of a slave being merely a passive one, hi
subordination to his master and to all who represent him is not susceptibh
of any modification or restriction.” The slave “owes to his master, and to al
his family, a respect without bounds, and an absolute obedience.”

The Laws of Spain used in Louisiana Colony were translated and codifie<
in Lislet and Carleton’s Partidas, Vol. 1 and Vol. II, 1820 (Louisiana Stat
Law Library), and contain that portion of La Siete Partidas “considered a
having the force of law in Louisiana.” In Title 2, Law 8, p. 30, we learn thr
“a slave cannot legally appear in court, as he has no control over himself, be
is under the domination of his master, who is above him.” The master “ma
chastise him by words or blows.” In Title 21, Law 6, p. 584, we learn th i
the master ought not to kill a slave or “cause him to perish by hunger, unle*
he has found hirif with his wife, or daughter, or had committed some oth<
similar offense; for them he may \ill the slave ” (My emphasis — o.c.j.)

After Louisiana became a state, the provision is put into Article 7, Sectic
4, of the first state constitution 2 that “All laws now in force in this 'terri tor
not inconsistent with this constitution, shall continue and remain in full effe
until repealed by the Legislature.” The Black Code was not repealed, h
remained “in full effect.” On March 9, 1827, for example, in the Acts

2) The state constitution of that time is given in Acts of Louisiana, 1828-30, Louisia

222

GENOCIDE

S* 5 PfiS&AXViZti:** " A “ is H

n » f th ' Bi « k ^ <*» /

to insuit or strike whiS vcoL T pe °P le ° f C0,0r ° ugbt " evc

the white; but on th confnrv /h^ ^'^^'t t0 them ^es equal

sion, and never speak ‘7 ,dd t0 them in ‘4 occa

of imprisonmen According to £ rf

that” thev instituted ^ ^type^of folSb? , Subiec ‘ t0 ‘ the Black Code In.l

free whites. It is “forth nodn, nf ^ bctWCen Ne g«> slaves and

people in Louisiana 7 ™. “f g d T ‘7 tb< ; 20tb centur y. that the entire Negro

inherit the Black Code state' of C ?nind° are °to I ^ V ' CW ° f those who

if convicted of crime. ’ e P ums hed in a different way

oSSS*C “"!• "K)' h r„“i” 1 f °> U “T"“' ,86 ”°> PP- «- 5 '

crimes should oe punished bv imnri s atl | 4 te provided that rape and other
years nor less than six month in s ° nnaent at hard labor not exceeding two

no. less than $ 5 oc, at the discretion ott^cL dol H
hbera.i statute, and 'ate- ones rhir ’ 1 Was undei suc h a rather

of Angola penitentiary in the v A Ces were meted out to the inmates
to 1889. Pe, Uem ' ar > ln the CXam P'« g*ven previously from the years 1866

B Haves £or A “AdAhe BkckcT^” '° ^' tes after the Rutherford
in all out name . A- the "editor R V^’ put back int0 operation

19-0 nut' it “Far. ! , 7 c u * L ° uislana Alma ™c and Fact Book, 1040-
di/n« come « £ " S £ M" f *? *>

between tbe feree' of prtee rdc ti i.-i 1 tO f ' cfr "0. A sort of bargain

?Ta£Z?™ T”' USSTJ! rZStS.

nSo“ ss.‘gfr of ,l>c

2«ffi2iSSttj22r *-AfcsaB=

tSSL'D^ ? !t Ui ‘t th f d ' sc “ d ““ »f slave-

New Orleans a Sf J ™ ^ ,° f "" C »“f' d erac,, foontl
he lived here until his death in 1 r88n ° '!t j '7 1IS rebeBlon vvas defeated;
political rule was set ud before hie 9 ’. an oubtless was happy that white
era). Francis Tillou Nicholls who 1 pass,ng ' II was a former Confederate gen-
President Haves made the' “sort a ^ 1S SV v f rnor °f Louisiana in 1876 when
SemmeSj a New Ot£s LyZ w t the'S £ ' l ”'- Th .“”“ 1

General of Louisiana, and who-according t 0 ^ Dr £chdl
theorist of Secessionism A* c * l Ur A - ™ tche11 Prankhn 3 was the

New Orleans in h” 0 S wbte Cl, “ W “ » P™tice law in

Salt U s'tpVme' &z£F¥]li

decision,

3 ) Dr. Mitchell Franklin is professor of constitutional law at Tulane University.

APPENDIX

223

jurist, to partially successful efforts to nullify, the 14th Amendment.

The career of Alabama-born Judge Campbell is traced in Dr. Mitchell
franklin’s article, “The Foundations and Meaning of the Slaughterhouse
1 uses.” 4 Campbell left his U.S. Supreme Court job to support the seceding
•live-holding Confederacy, and, like Jefferson Davis, found after the Civil
War that New Orleans was a congenial place to live. As the article states,

I lie task of John A. Campbell . . .-was to overcome the defeat suffered by
l lie Southern slaveholders in the Civil War.” Campbell attempted “to over-
mme the 14th Amendment by veering it about to the advantage of the de-
bated South.” Dr. Franklin points out, in discussing the legal controversy
over the Slaughterhouse monopoly: “At the very moment Campbell was
• intending in the Louisiana courts that the 14th Amendment had the broadest
possible meaning and hence protected the rights of the anti-monopolists of
pursuing their calling, he was also defending the right of a New Orleans
theater to segregate Negro opera-goers, despite a statute of Louisiana which
I hen forbade that form of racial discrimination.”

Dr. Franklin points out that the 14th Amendment, which he describes as
the “sleeping giant” of the United States Constitution, was in effect put to
deep by the legal trickeries of such ex-Confederate pro-Slavery jurists as
Judge Campbell, who not only led Louisiana Law in the direction of separate
hut unequal justice for the Negro but also inspired to a great extent federal
myness in enforcement of the 14th Amendment.

Exhibit III: Constitutional History

Louisiana has had nine different constitutions in its history, and what they
contain — and what they leave out — explains in part the continued existence
of the Black Code as Louisiana’s underground constitution.

Huey P. Long, Louisiana’s cleverest demagogue, published the texts of
.ill nine of Louisiana’s constitutions, so arranged that the reader can compare
1 hem article by article, in his Compilation of the Constitutions of the State of
Louisiana , 1930. Particularly interesting are the first constitution, that of
1812; the fifth constitution, adopted in 1868, which was the first and last state
( onstitution to contain the full Bill of Rights; the sixth constitution, adopted
in 1879 under the leadership of the Ku Klux Klan forces who deleted the
most vital parts of the Bill of Rights; and the latest constitution, that of
1921, which is a polished version of the original KKK constitution.

Huey P. Long knew the meaning of the various constitutions. “The Bill of
Rights first found its way into the Constitution of Louisiana after the Civil
War,” he wrote, in his introduction, “in the Constitution of 1868. It was
after human slavery had been abolished that the Louisiana Constitution con-
tained certain lines of the Declaration of Independence, reading: ‘All men
are created free and equal, have certain inalienable rights; among these are
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed.’ ”

Long continued: “But when the white Southern manhood gained the uppe:
hand in the control of the State’s affairs, and convoked the Constitutiona

4) Tulane Law Review, October and December, 1943 (Vol. XVIII, Nos. 1 and 2)
Quotes are from the December, 1943 issue, pp. 227, 299, 237, 245.

GENOCIDE

224

Convention of 1879, the lines of Jefferson, in the Bill of Rights, were changed
for words otherwise considered more appropriate and certain for the causes
and purposes intended and desired.” It is perfecdy clear what “purposes"
were “intended and desired.”

The 1868 Constitution provided, in Article 13, that public conveyances,
and places of business and public resort, “shall be opened to the accommoda
tion and patronage of all persons, without distinction or discrimination on
account of race or color.” This article was taken out of later Louisiana con-
stitutions.

The 1868 Constitution also provided that all children of the state should
be admitted to the public schools or institutions of learning “without distinc-
tion of race, color, or previous conditions.” It added: “There shall be no
separate schools or institutions of learning, established exclusively for any
race by the State of Louisiana.”

In place of this we now have, in the 1921 Constitution, Article 12, a pro-
vision that “Separate free public schools shall be maintained for the education
of white and colored children between the ages of six and eighteen years.”

Among the “purposes . . . intended and desired” by the 1879 Constitution
was that of neutralizing and reducing the Negro vote and depriving Negroes
of any share in the government. The constitution of 1898 carried the plan
further by introducing the “Grandfather Clause” which for a couple of gen-
erations destroyed every Negro citizen’s right to vote, or to hold office.

But most effective of all was the tight control of the courts of justice put
into the hands of anti-democratic white reactionaries. This was the Black
Code, wearing a cloak of invisibility but as powerful as it ever was in pre-
Emancipation days.

The chronology of the march of white supremacy and unequal justice may
be indicated as follows: In 1876 the unholy alliance of President Hayes and
Southern white reactionaries was consummated; immediately began the con
solidation of white political power, culminating in the 1879 constitution
which in effect nullified the Bill of Rights and the 13th and 14th Amend-
ments; in 1892, the statute providing death was a punishment for “aggra-
vated rape” (i.e., in practice, of white women and Negro men) went into
effect; in 1894, inter-marriage between Negroes and whites was prohibited
by statute; in 1898 the “grandfather clause” was put into the Constitution; in
1921 segregation in education, already in effect, was put into the Constitu-
tion; in 1942, “miscegenation” was defined so as to emphasize the 1894 statute
on intermarriage and further facilitate differential punishment for rape.

It is contended here that this development is incompatible with federal
constitutional and legal provisions for equal justice; that it is a violation of
these provisions; and that persons affected by this violation suffer denial of
constitutional and legal rights.

Exhibit IV: Social History

It was in 1867 that the Knights of the White Camelia, an organization to
enforce white supremacy, was formed at Franklin, Louisiana, and in 1874
that a similar organization, the White League, was formed at Opelousas,
Louisiana. These groups had virtual private armies which fought the Recon-
struction government forces and— with the backing of President Hayes-
defeated the government and set up a “white man’s” rule in the state, which

APPENDIX

exists to this day. The cornerstone of white supremacy is segregation of the
races.

Segregation : Since the end of the Reconstruction period and the adoption
of the KKK-sponsored Constitution of 1879, segregation of the white and
black race has been the law in this state, enforced by constitutional provision,
legislative statute, and local regulation, requiring separate schools, separate
restaurants, separate toilets and drinking fountains in public buildings, sep-
arate seating in trains and buses. In addition, marriage and even co-habitation
of Negroes and whites is forbidden by statute.

This separation has made easy the almost complete denial of the vote and
of public office to the entire Negro people in this state, 35.9 percent of the
population. The virtual denial of the vote and of public office carries with it
the virtual denial of the right to sit on juries, and hence the virtual denial to
a Negro defendant of the right of trial by a jury of his peers. It is a serious
question whether any trial of a Negro for crime in the prevailing milieu of
this state could be considered a fair trial.

Lynching: No people can be held down undemocratically through use
of democratic political forms except through terroristic tactics, and this is the
raison d’etre for lynching. Louisiana members of Congress have steadily op-
posed anti-lynching legislation. In Louisiana 335 recorded lynchings of Negroes
took place between 1882 and 1948, a period of 66 years; a quarter of these
lynchings were due to allegations of rape. It is a serious question whether any
trial of a Negro for crime by a state which has permitted 335 lynchings of
Negroes in 66 years can be considered fair. It is apparent that the 335 Louisiana
extra-legal killings of Negroes and the 40 Louisiana legal executions for
“rape” are both parts of a system of Black Code justice quite out of keeping
with the Federal Constitution and Federal civil rights.

Police Brutality : A natural result of segregation and of white supremacy
is police brutality exercised primarily against Negroes, particularly those
arrested and charged with crime. Negro newspapers have spoken out against
police brutality time and time again.

In its issue of June 19, 1926, the Louisiana Weekly editorialized under the
title of “Bullies in Uniform”; “Two New Orleans policemen arrest Negro
woman in her home, drag her half-dressed from bed, beat her to pulp and
throw her in jail without medical attention.” In the issue of December 7,
1929, under the title, “Police Brutality,” the same paper said editorially: “Time
after time the Louisiana Weekly has called the attention of the authorities
to the fact that patrolmen ofttimes use Negro suspects and prisoners with
utter contempt, treating them worse than one would a stray mongrel dog.
Beat them like they were something inanimate.” Ten years later, February
11, 1939, under the heading, “No Excuse for Police Brutality,” the same
paper declared: “Once again in New Orleans Negroes and those of human
hearts belonging to other races are caught in a dragnet of fear at the animal-
like savagery with which Negroes so unfortunate as to be caught in the toils
of the law or the long arm of policemen, are being treated. Almost daily,
stories of horrible examples of what physical brutality the sworn protectors
of the law wreak upon hapless, helpless individuals are brought before the
public which, however skeptical, cannot refute the evidence as offered by
men’s bruised and scarred bodies.”

And in the current period, May 13, 1950, right after the election of the
Mayor and city officials of New Orleans, the Louisiana Wee\ly warned edi-

226

GENOCIDE

torially: “The members of the Commission should know that Negroes will
expect them to be concerned about their welfare during the next four yeari
as they were about the votes in January. . . . Should know that Negroes an
alarmed and displeased at the readiness of local police to use their clubs and
their pistols, frequently without provocation. . . . Negroes do not expect thh
coroner to find citizens to have died from ‘natural causes’ where undertakers
and private physicians find such persons have been shot through the head
or the back.” And the paper adds, ironically, in another editorial two months
later in a comment on “Those Police Investigations” (July 29, 1950): “I!
there is anything that is a greater farce than the police department’s investiga
tion of its police, we would like to know . . .”

In a sharply worded editorial August 12, 1950, the Louisiana Weekly indi
cates the connection between police brutality and Black Code mentality by
saying: “Last week we published an excerpt from a letter written over the
signature of Criminal Sheriff Grosch. In this letter Mr. Grosch advises his
readers that: ‘I recently chartered the John J. Grosch Democratic Organiza
tion, a political and civil organization. The organization is organized prin
cipally to further the cause of white supremacy.’ ”

The Negro press is right in seeing a connection between segregation and
white supremacy on the one hand, and police brutality on the other, and
right to see a connection between both and those rape trials in which the
death sentence is reserved for Negroes.

As implied in the May 13, 1950, editorial quoted above, police in this state
carry brutality to the point of killing at the slightest provocation, and some-
times with no provocation at all. Attention is called to the shooting of Roy
Cyril Brooks by Patrolman Alvin Bladsacker in Gretna on February 27, 1948;
the killing, before his father’s eyes, of the young veteran, Chrispin Charles,
in New Orleans, July 4, 1949, by New Orleans policemen Sahuc and Landry;
the beating to death of war veteran Eugene Jones by West Bank police in the
early morning of Saturday, November 5, 1949, as the man lay handcuffed in
a Gretna jail cell; the shooting to death of Eugene Johnson, 24, on So. Ram
part St., New Orleans, December 27, 1948, by Officer David Mark of the
New Orleans police force; and the shooting and severe wounding by Deputy
Sheriff Anthony J. Licciardi, St. Bernard Parish, of U.S. Army Pvt. Matthew
Peterson, Jr., as he lay in bed in Meraux, La., on March 9, 1951.

These examples are taken from New Orleans and vicinity, and New Or-
leans is without doubt the most enlightened and most nearly democratic
place in the state. When one goes to those many parishes where not one
single Negro dares register to vote, he will find still worse conditions.

It is a serious question whether any trial of a Negro for crime can be
considered fair when those who make the arrests, collect the evidence, and
keep suspects confined are guilty of so much brutality in the exercise of their
routine duties.

Exhibit V: Special Category for White Rapists

Very interesting are the comparative facts about the punishment of Negroes
accused of rape and of white rapists, particularly white rapists of Negro
women or Negro girls.

John E. Rousseau in the Pittsburgh Courier (Louisiana Edition) of March

to T or t p-oerpfs n rompirnttvr ctiulv of two co n fen pern r*v npe enns. one

APPENDIX

a*7

in which a Negro rapes a white girl baby-sitter 12 years of age, and another
in which a white man rapes a Negro baby-sitter 12 years of age. The Negro,
Walter Bentley, 28, of 2013 Marigay St., New Orleans, was found guilty on
February 19, 1951, °f “aggravated rape” (Article 42), and has been sentenced
to death in the electric chair. The white man, Steve Cangelosi, 36, of 228
Brooklyn St., in Jefferson Parish, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced October
27, 1949, for “carnal knowledge of a minor” (Article 80) to one year in the

Parish prison. w _ . t < T

In opening his article on these two typical cases, Mr. Rousseau asks: Is

Article 42 of the Louisiana Criminal Code designed to protect all females in
this state, or does it protect only those females who are members of the white
race?” The answer lies not only in the obvious practice of the courts, but in
the concealed Black Code which is designed to follow up the segregation of
Negroes from whites with the dealing out to Negroes a separate kind of

justice. . , , 11

The Bentley-Cangelosi contrast is not an isolated example, but it is an

unusually public one. There are scores of other more or less hidden instances
that, with effort, could be brought to light. .

Statutes on intermarriage have further emphasized the survival of slave
regulations. In 1825, under slavery, not only was marriage between free per-
sons and slaves forbidden, but also marriage “between free white persons and
free persons of color” (Art. 95, Civil Code, 1825). This provision was re-
pealed during Reconstruction, but in 1894, with the revival of white man’s
rule, a statute (Act 54 of 1894, amending Art. 94, Revised Civil Code, 1870)
forbade marriage “between white persons and persons of color.” In 1942JN0.
43, Art. 79), this rule was strengthened by defining “miscegenation” as “mar-
riage or habitual co-habitation, with knowledge of their difference in race,
between a person of the Caucasian or white race and a person of the colored
or Negro race.” (Dart’s Louisiana Code of Criminal Law and Procedure,
740-79.) The 1942 statute thus illegalizes interracial “co-habitation” (common
law marriage) as well as formal marriage, that is, it makes any kind of sex
relationship between whites and Negroes— with emphasis on white women
and Negro men — a criminal offense.

This limitation of marriage provided a new gimmick for carrying out the
original White League plan of Black Code justice. It meant that, while a
sex relation of a white man with a white woman could be either voluntary
or at the worst simple rape, and of a white man with a Negro woman prob-
ably” voluntary but sometimes simple rape, a sex relation of a Negro man
with a white woman had no legal standing at all; it must be, in practice and
in logic, aggravated rape. The gimmick thus provided a concealed legal foun-
dation for the Special Category of White Rapists, virtually guaranteeing that
in practice a white rapist would not receive the death penalty.

The hidden Black Code is the theoretical basis for an unequal administra-
tion of justice in Louisiana. The explanation of a ratio of 40 death sentences
for rape by 35.9 percent of the population, during a half-century, to 2 death
sentences for that crime by the remaining 64*1 percent, lies in the Black Code
mentality of Louisiana courts and government.

The former legal differentiation between punishment of white criminals
and punishment of Negro criminals, which existed in pre-Civil War days,
established a practice of unequal justice; this practice was re-established and
continued with the setting up of post-Reconstruction “white man’s rule”; the

228

GENOCIDE

practice of unequal administration of the criminal statutes, particularly that
providing for the punishment of rape, backed and protected as it is. by the
segregation and political subjugation of the Negro people in this state, and
facilitated by legal and constitutional ambiguities, still continues in all state
and loc^il courts.

Document C

“The masters of the Government of the United States are the combined
capitalists and manufacturers of the United States” President Woodrow
Wilson declared in 1913. “A more nearly perfect mechanism for making the
poor poorer and the rich richer could scarcely be devised ” the Temporary
National Economic Committee declared in describing American monopoly.

Both observations are apropos of monopoly in the South . It dominates the
state governments there more nakedly than elsewhere. And it has made the
Southern people poorer than those of any other section of the nation , while
making itself the richest aggregate of capital the world has seen. The monopoly
listed below owes much of its favored position and gargantuan profits to the
segregation, oppression and genocidal terror it foments as a source of economic
and political control.

SOME DATA ON MONOPOLY CONTROL IN THE SOUTH

Morgan:

The huge steel plants of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company
in Birmingham, Ensley, Bessemer, and Fairfield, Ala., its captive iron ore
mines in Alabama and its 362,432 acres of captive coal veins in Alabama and
Tennessee, since 1907 have belonged to the Morgan-launched and Morgan-
interest dominated U.S. Steel Corporation. So do the Virginia Bridge Com-
pany plants at Roanoke, Birmingham, and Memphis; the Universal Adas
Cement Company plants at Waco, Texas, and Leeds, Ala.; and since 1943,
the American Republics Corporations plants at Port Arthur and Beaumont,
Texas. U.S. Steel also has a plant at New Orleans.

Morgan interests likewise control the Commonwealth and Southern Co.,
leading southern utility company, the American Telephone and Telegraph
Cc. (Bell System), and the Southern Railway Co.

Cleveland Financiers:

Republic Steel, a Cleveland-controlled company, has plants and captive
mines in the Birmingham area and Gadsden.

du Fonts:

The E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. has rayon, nylon, plastic, explosive
and chemical plants throughout the South — at Belle, Meadowbrook, Nemours,
Weirton, W. Va.; Wurtland, Ky.; Waynesboro, Martinsville, and Richmond,
Va.; Old Hickory, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Bartlesville, Okla.; Houston,
Stanton and Orange, Texas. Also under Du Pont control are the General

APPENDIX 229

Motors Corp. plants at Memphis and Atlanta, its saw mills in Louisiana and
Tennessee, and its timber tracts in Louisiana and Arkansas. Du Pont also
controls the United States Rubber Co. plants at Hogansville, Ga., Winnsboro,
S. C., Shelby ville, Tenn., and Scottsville, Va.

Chemicals:

The chemical industry of the South is almost entirely in the hands of
large northern corporations — du Pont, Allied Chemical and Dye, Union
Carbide and Carbon, Celanese Corporation of America, the American Viscose
Corporation, largest rayon-producing corporation. Dow Chemical Co. has
tremendous plants near Houston and has bought four government-owned
plants in the area. Monsanto Chemical Co. is also expanding in the South.
The American Bemberg Corporation, North American Rayon, and the Amer-
ican Enka Corporation, with plants entirely in the South, are subsidiaries of
the Algemeene Kuntzijde Unie N.V., a Netherlands concern.

Roc\efellers & Oil:

One of the South’s greatest natural resources is petroleum. This has fallen
almost entirely into the hands of great monopolies, principally the Rockefellers.

The Humble Oil and Refining Co., operating mainly in Texas but also in
Louisiana and New Mexico, and the Carter Oil Co., producing largely in
Oklahoma, are subsidiaries of the Rockefeller-controlled Standard Oil Co. of
New Jersey and constitute the entire producing facilities of that company, the
largest petroleum company in America. They hold in fee and under lease
some 20,000,000 acres in the United States, mainly in the South. The Interstate
Oil Pipe Line Co. and the Plantation Pipe Line Co. are also subsidiaries of
Standard Oil (N.J.).

Standard Oil Co. of California, also a Rockefeller company, has under
lease 613,903 acres in Texas, 246,346 acres in Mississippi, 217,636 acres in
Louisiana, 733*899 acres in Georgia, and 207*062 acres in Alabama, and
additional acreage in other southern states, although this company operates at
the present time almost entirely in California and has actual southern oil wells
in operation only in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The rest of its acreage
is for further use.

Rockefeller interests also control the Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., which
holds about eleven million acres of land in the United States, about seven
million acres in the South. Of its 10,621 oil and gas wells operating in the
United States, 5*708 at the end of 1945 were hi Texas, i*75$ in Oklahoma,
278 in Louisiana and 20 in Mississippi.

The Coronado Corporation, owning and operating oil properties in Texas,
Louisiana, and Alabama, is owned by the Stanolind Oil and Gas Company
which is owned by another Rockefeller company, the Standard Oil Co. of
Indiana. Standard Oil (Ind.) has producing or prospective acreage in Arkansas,
Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama though its chief pro-
ducing properties at present are in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico,
Wyoming, and Louisiana. The Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Georgia
with a refinery at Savannah, and the Pan-American Refining Corporation
with refineries at Texas City, Texas, and Destrehan, La., are other subsidiaries
of Standard Oil (Indiana).

GENOCIDE

230

Another Rockefeller company, Atlantic Refining Company, owns oil rights
on 3,665,000 acres in the U.S., much of it in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mississippi. A smaller Rockefeller-con -
trolled company, the Ohio Oil Company, has oil and gas lands or leases on
production in Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Joining hands with Rockefeller interests in joint exploitation of oil resources
in the Near East is the Texas Company, fifth largest American oil corpora-
tion, which operates mainly at present in Texas, but also has extensive
operations in Oklahoma and Louisiana. It has more than 10 million acres of
oil producing or potential producing land owned in fee or under lease in the
United States, mainly in the South.

Mellon:

Gulf Oil Corporation with millions of acres under lease in the South is a
Mellon concern. Mellon also controls the Koppers Co., with many southern
plants and the Virginian Railway Company.

Shell Union Oil Corporation, which is controlled by the great Royal Dutch
petroleum company, holds in fee or under lease 365,743 acres in Louisiana,
122,292 acres in Oklahoma, and 907,593 acres in Texas.

These companies and a few others not quite so large are rapidly acquiring
control of ail the potential oilfields in the South. Thus the Socony Vacuum
Oil Company holds under lease 1,678,976 acres of land in Florida where
in 1946 it had not tried to drill a single well; and in Mississippi nearly 800,000
acres only 800 of which were “proven.”

Pulp & Paper:

Another great industry of the South is the manufacture of pulp and paper
from wood supplied by the South’s 'forests. This industry is one of the less
concentrated of America’s industries so far as ownership is concerned. But
the world’s largest paper company, the International Paper Company, with
assets amounting to over 250 million dollars, has huge plants in Mobile, Ala.;
Camden, Arkansas; Panama City, Florida; Moss Point, Mississippi; George-
town, South Carolina; and three plants in Louisiana. It owns one and a half
million acres of timberland in the South. It exercises enormous power over
the press through ownership and sales.

The Union Bag and Paper Company, world’s largest producer of paper
bags, also controlled by northern capital, has its principal plant at Savannah,
where, prior to its current expansion, it produced each eight-hour day nine
hundred and sixty tons of Kraft pulp, 500 tons of Kraft paper, 400 tons of
Kraft boards and 14,500,000 paper bags. This company owns in fee or holds
under long term lease 468,269 acres of woodlands in Georgia, South Carolina,
and Florida.

Also Wall Street-controlled is the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company,
which between 1923 and 1943 bought 345,800 acres of timberlands in North
and South Carolina and has huge plants at Covington, Va., and Charleston,
S. C. plant which started operations in 1937. The lease runs for fifty years
with an option to renew for another fifty years.

The Container Corp. of America, third largest paper producer in this
country, has plants at Forth Worth, Texas and Fernandina, Florida. It also
controls the Sefton Fibre Can Company with a plant at New Orleans.

APPENDIX

231

The Brunswick Pulp and Paper Company which began operation at Bruns-
wick, Georgia, in 1938 is jointly owned by two northern corporations, the
Scott Paper Co., of toilet-tissue fame, and the Mead Corp. The Mead Corpo-
ration has plants of its own at Lynchburg and Radford^ Virginia; Nashville,
Knoxville, Harriman, Kingsport and Newport, Tenn.; and Sylva, N. C.

The Champion Paper and Fibre Company, a fifty million dollar northern
corporation, has mills at Houston, Texas; Canton, N. C.; and Sandersville, Ga.
It owns about 75,000 acres of timberland and holds a contract for preter-
rential right to purchase another million and a half acres in Texas.

Rubber:

Rubber is a relative newcomer to the South; Goodyear Tire & ^ u kber
which accounts for about one-third of all rubber sales and is controlled by the
Cleveland group of financiers, has a tire and rubber plant with nearly 3,000
employees at Gadsden, Ala., and tire cord plants at Cedartown, Cartersvillc,
and Rock'mart, Ga., and Decatur, Ala. At the end of 1947 it was still operat-
ing a government-owned war plant at Houston, Texas.

Firestone, which is a family-controlled northern corporation depending
on a Ford connection for its market, prior to the war got 30 percent of its
production from its Memphis plant. It also has plants at Gastonia, N. C., anc!
Bennettsville, S. C., and at the end of 1947 was still operating government,
owned synthetic rubber plants at Lake Charles, La., and Port Iseches, Texas
The B. F. Goodrich Company has large plants in Alabama, Georgia, ien

nessee, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. . , , , .

The U.S. Rubber Company has three mills in Georgia and other plants ir

South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

T obacco:

The South’s industries most closely allied to agriculture, such as the fer
tilizer plants and the tobacco plants, the cotton oil mills and the cottoi
compresses, are dominated by giant corporations.

Prices paid to southern farmers for the tobacco crop are pretty mud
determined by the big tobacco companies whose giant southern plants suppl
the nation with cigarettes. In 1934, according to the Agricultural Income Ir
quiry of the Federal Trade Commission published in 1938 (Part 1, Principe,
Farm Products ), Liggett & Myers, the American Tobacco Company, an.
R J Reynolds, makers of Chesterfield, Lucky Strike, and Camel cigarette
respectively, bought nearly half the United States tobacco crop, and nearl
70 per cent of the crop sold for use in this country. The six leading con:
panies bought 58 percent of the total crop and more than 87 percent of tb
crop sold domestically.

Cotton:

The compressing and warehousing of cotton is dominated by another giar
$160,000,000 corporation, Anderson, Clayton & Company, largest merchai
diser of cotton in the world with buying organizations in the United State
Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Paraguay and Egypt. In i 9 33 > this compai:
bought 10 percent of the American cotton crop. It employs about 6,000 me
and women in this country and 6,500 abroad. Its subsidiaries include chan

GENOCIDE

2 3 *

Abb™" ‘2hC,£*T warehouses localed in Georgi,, T«a., Louisi™,,

oil SIS' i “m '"‘ t 1 ' ^

2j 0? ' hi -

It Nnw" York Morgan-mterest comroM bank, ,1 a GuAanly Tnrn Co

Senator May bank" 0 "" 011 ” *' S “ ,h is ,h « °f Son* Carolina’.

Meat Packing & Oil .

Com P* a y» the great meat packer, with sales that led the nation in
“am processing plfn^ TheT SddgS

A, lama, and dJmbU N C Ho “ Alb “'’

Fla.; Nashville, Tenn • Navassa N C- M ’’ n i ’ J exas; Jacksonville,

Birmingham, «... CoIuX Mom™,, ?"a"" Noli ,tT“i °f*

operates cotton seed oil plants WilsonTr™?’ f 1 Norfolk, Va. It also

has plants at Oklahorn a P City and Columns ^ mCat p f kcr >

compound lard refinery at Chattanooga ’ ’ ^ 3 C ° tt0nSeed 0,1 and

G Th L B dW k 00d ’ Ind TePas “* Albany ’

ment munitions plants in the South. S U 0perated three govern-

These companies together with the Wesson Oil and Snowdrift- r„
of 69 cottonseed crushing mills and ™ • • 5 dnh Co -. owners

plants, seven shortening 8 plants .8 shellin g

plants labelled under various names ^ Z f u a " d miscellane ™s other
cottonseed paid to the farmer and nl P C to g et h e r to control the price of
to the cotton grower Wess^ Oil Ind ^ “ ' mpo ^ tant P art in credit extended
Cotton Oil C° mPany °T S ^ S ° Uthern

Vegetable Oil Co., and many others. Company, the International

T extiles:

i"dSSL.“S^,' 1 1 ““ of American

than about a fifth of the snindles o n H ov ^ nin g ln | 94 ^ probably not more
be nored ,ha, rf SS’ljT'’ ' h ' •""* “ ‘ h °“ ld

colorations or is under northern control. “ 7 “ ° Wned by northcrn

The southern textile industry was originally native but northern
moved in increasingly after 10m R„ l , e . C northern companies

,y pereem 'S&EZS &£*“

APPENDIX

*33

percent of the spindles and io percent of the looms; in Georgia 20 percent of
the spindles and 14.4 percent of the looms; in Alabama 36 percent of the
spindles and 37 percent of the looms. Nearly half the silk looms and a quarter
of the silk spindles in the South were northern-owned. 1

There are indications that the depression years served to increase the degree
of northern ownership considerably. The later war years and first two post-war
years, however, saw a veritable revolution in southern textiles, with whole
chains of mills passing into northern ownership and merging with northern
capital, as well as a general integration of the industry. Between a fourth and
a fifth of the productive capacity of the textile industry were involved in
such changes of hands during these years. One leading newcomer to the
south was the war-bom Textron, Inc., a Rhode Island Company, which owns
the Manville-Jenckes Company and Textron Southern, Incorporated, organized
in 1946 to take over the Gossett mills in North and South Carolina. Another
was J. P. Stevens & Co. of New York, the leading cotton commission mer-
chants during the recent war. In August 1946 they merged nine textile com-
panies in the Carolinas and a producing subsidiary in Massachusetts.

[Sources for the above information are as follows: For interest group con-
trol and some other information: Economic Concentration and World War II.
(Report of the Smaller War Plants Corporation to the Special Committee to
Study Problems of American Small Business, U.S. Senate, 79th Congress, 2nd
Session, Report No. 6; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1946.)

For individual company data: Moody’s Manual of Investments, American
and Foreign, Industrial Securities, Moody’s Investors Service, New York, 1945,
1946, 1947 an< ^ 1948, and The Wall Street Journal.

For textile industry, some material was secured from the Journal of Com-
merce, the Textile World, the Manufacturers Record, Standard and Poor’s
Industry Surveys, and Davison’s Textile Blue Boo\, 1940.]

Document D

Congress, by its consistent refusal to act for the protection or welfare of the
15,000,000 American citizens who are Negroes, incites Genocide against them.
Its conduct clearly shows that it believes Negro Americans should be without
the protection of the law and the Constitution. This partial calendar reveals
something of the tone, temper and maneuvers of Congress toward the Negro
people from January 16, 1950 to September 21, 1950.

Sen. William Langer (R., N.D.) attacked an anti-lynching rider which had
been appended to an aflti-poil tax bill, and called for a Congressional in-
vestigation of “so-called Negro leaders” who call upon Congress to enact
civil rights laws.

fanuary 18,. Senator Langer, who two days earlier had attacked all civil rights
legislation, attached an anti-lynching and an anti-poll tax rider to a bill

1) See Ben F. Lemert, The Cotton Textile Industry of the Southern Appalachian Pied
mont, p. 155, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1933.

GENOCIDE

2 34

to permit the coloring of oleomargarine, in a maneuver intended to
alienate Southern support for the bill and thus ensure its defeat.

January 20. Dr. H. M. Griffith, lobbyist for the National Economic Council,
testified at a committee hearing against the anti-lynching bill, S. 1726.

January 24. Sen. Scott Lucas (D., 111 .) introduced an amendment to the
FEPC bill which would prevent it from going into effect until the various
state legislatures had resolved that discrimination in employment existed
within the state, and had set up a state FEPC agency to work with the
national FEPC.

February 1. Anti-lynching bill S. 91 was scheduled for consideration, but
upon the motion of Sen. Lucas (D., 111 .) it was passed over.

February 9. Harry S. Barger of the National Economic Council testified
before the Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Relations against ratification
of the Genocide Convention.

February 10. Rep. Rankin spoke of what he called a “disgusting report of
a little Yiddish woman lawyer here by the name of Ruth Weygand” for
having filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court against dining car segre-
gation in the Henderson case. * Mr. Speaker, one of the greatest fakers the
world ever knew is Albert Einstein, who should have been deported for his
communistic activities years ago,” Rankin also said.

February 14. Rep. Rankin, in an attack aimed at “Orientals” among others,
by which he apparently referred to Jewish persons, said, “Do not forget that
these alleged racial minorities have from 50 to 100 times as many of their
own groups on the Federal payroll in Washington as they are numerically
entitled to, while our white American servicemen who fought the Nation’s
battles in time of war, and must now support its institutions in time of peace,
are driven from the Federal payroll.”

February 14. Sen. John C. Stennis (D., Miss.) and Sen. James O. Eastland
(D., Miss.) introduced the statement made by Louisiana district attorney
Leander H. Perez before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in oppo-
sition to ratification of the Genocide Convention.

February 15. Rep. Clare Hoffman (R., Mich.) declared that advocates of
FEPC legislation want “special privileges, special administration which will
not only give equality to them, but special privileges ... as the Gentleman
from Mississippi, Mr. Rankin once said . . . the group that needs protection
in this country are the white taxpaying Gentiles.”

February 16. Rep. Louis B. Heller (D., N.Y.) pointed out that the U.S.
Army is not making due progress against racial discrimination in its ranks,
and that the gap between principles and practices “is all too apparent to the
rest of the world.”

February 23. Despite protests of Negro organizations that such a measure
would prove worse than none, the House passed, 240 to 177, a “voluntary”
FEPC bill, H.R. 4453 which would rely upon moral suasion alone,

March 3. Rep. James B. Hare (D., S.C.) charged that if the Presidential
order calling for the elimination of racial discrimination in the armed forces
is earned out and not rescinded it will cause “an untold amount of dissen-
sion and insurrection among the ranks of our ’fighting men.”

March 13. Rep.. Hare in a speech against civil rights legislation declared
that racial prejudice cannot be regulated by law.

ipni 14. Sen. Clyde R. Hoey (D., N.C.) read to the Senate an editorial
from the April r2 issue of the Christian Science Monitor entitled “Separate

APPENDIX 2 35

but Equal” which said in part: “To throw out segregation bodily within
states that still desire it would run all the dangers we have listed where law
presses custom too fast and hard. To demand equality as the price tor
separateness, on the other hand, promises steady and peaceful progress.
April to. FEPC legislation was scheduled for consideration by the Senate but
was passed over at the request of 'Sen. Allen J. Ellender (D., La.) speaking
for Sen. Olin D. Johnston (D., S.C.).

An amendment to the 1950 District of Columbia appropriations bill, which
would have denied funds to any agency practicing racial or religious dis-
crimination, was offered by Rep. Vito Marcantomo (ALP, N.Y.), but was

defeated 67 to 21. . £ .1

April 20. An editorial was inserted in the Congressional Record from the
April 19 Washington Times Herald , entitled “Truth on Civil Rights, and
charging that the Democrats had done nothing to secure passage ot tit

civil rights program. , ^ . , . 1

May 3 The House Committee on the District of Columbia voted unanimously
to report favorably H.R. 5968, which would take public swimming pool:
in the District of Columbia out of the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department
of Interior, and place them under the control of the District Commissioners
(The Interior Department had inaugurated a policy of nonsegregation
whereas it was the policy of the Commissioners to segregate the races.)
May 10. Rep. Jacob Javits (R., N.Y.) and Rep. Marcantonio introduced amend
ments to H.R. 7786, the 1950 General Appropriations Bill, which woulc
have denied funds to any Governmental agency practicing racial, religious
or national discrimination; but the amendments were defeated.

May 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16. Southern Senators conducted filibuster against motioi
to take up consideration of FEPC bill, S. 1728. ...

Sen. Forrest C. Donnell (R., Mo.) introduced a petition for a rehearing hle<
by the Attorney General of California objecting to a ruling by the Cali
fornia Supreme Court invalidating that state’s Alien Land Act as bein;
repugnant to the United Nations Charter. .

May 18. Rep. Rankin charged that FEPC legislation was being fostered an«
pressed by alien-minded minorities that have for their purpose the amalgs
mation of the races and the destruction of the white man s civilizatior
and wiping Christianity from the face of the earth. .

May 19. A motion to limit debate on FEPC, which requires 64 votes fc
passage, was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 52 to 32. .... ,

Three Senators attacked the ruling of California court invalidating th;
state’s Alien Land Act as being repugnant to the United Nations Charte
May 23. An amendment offered by Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D., N.Y.) t
deny funds to Government agencies in the District of Columbia whic

discriminate was voted down. . n . A

May 24. An amendment to H.R. 6826 to extend the Selective Service Ac
which would prohibit discrimination in the armed forces, was offered
Reps. Powell and Javits, but was voted down.

May 25. Subcommittee on Foreign Relations heard Gerald L. K. Smith testiJ
in favor of amending the United Nations Charter to drastically curta
powers of the organization.

June 1. Rep. Rankin spoke against FEPC, introduced a letter from my goc
friend, Hon. George W. Armstrong, of Natchez, Mississippi (Armstror
is an oil and cotton multimillionaire, who offered $50,000,000 to Jeffersc

236 GENOCIDE

Military College in Mississippi if it would pledge to bar Negroes and Jews
and teach white supremacy.)

June 6 . Rep. Ed Gossett (D., Tex.) attacked the Supreme Court for its rulings
in the Sweatt, McLaurin, and Henderson cases (which ordered opening
white state colleges to Negroes where equal separate facilities are not pro-
vided, and an end to segregation in dining cars). “If Solicitor General
Perlman has his way, America will eventually be communized,” Gossett said.
Rep. Hoffman (R. Mich.) and Rep. Ben H. Guill (R., Tex.) endorsed
Gossett’s views. Guill charged that the Supreme Court was waging war upon
the South.

June y. Rep. Rankin charged that the Supreme Court’s decisions on civil rights
have done more to harm Negroes than anything since the Civil War which
abolished slavery.

June 8. The Senate Armed Services Committee adopted an amendment to
H.R. 6826 extending the Selective Service Act. Offered by Sen. Richard
Russell, (D., Ga.), the amendment would enable servicemen to decide
whether they wished to serve in segregated or unsegregated units.

June 12. Rep. Rankin attacked the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith
for having condemned racial segregation in District of Columbia swimming
pools. “That gang has been run out of every civilized country on earth
except this one, and they are headed for the same treatment here,” Rankin
said.

June 21. Twenty-nine Senators voted in favor of the bill which would permit
draftees to serve in segregated units of the armed forces if they preferred;
42 Senators voted against the measure.

June 22. Sen. James O. Eastland (D., Miss.) said that the South has no
apologies to make for racial segregation, and .is determined to maintain it.
He introduced S. J. Res. 189, which would provide Federal funds for a
study to determine what it would cost to provide “separate but equal”
educational facilities for the two races. His resolution was referred to the
Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.

An amendment to the Selective Service Act which would punish any act of
violence against servicemen because of race, color, national origin, ancestry,
rank, or religion was offered by Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (D., Minn.) but
was defeated.

June 27. Sen. William E. Jenner (R., Ind.) introduced a series of editorials
from the New Orleans States opposing ratification of the Genocide Con-
vention of the United Nations.

July 12. Motion to limit debate on FEPC defeated 55 to 33. Twenty-two
Democrats and 33 Republicans voted to limit debate, and 27 Democrats
and 6 Republicans voted against limiting debate.

July 17. Rep. Gosset (D., Tex.) called for abolition of Presidential elector
system to reduce power of “bloc voting” (which he attributed to Negroes,
Jews, etc.).

August 11. Rep. Henderson Lanham (D., Ga.) denied that he had called

William L. Patterson, head of the Civil Rights Congress, a “n r.” Rep.

Lanham went on to say that segregation is best for both races.

August 28. Rep. Rankin attacked the United Nations and called for its
abolition.

August 29. Rep. Rankin again attacked the United Nations as a “Tower of
Babel,” and for trying to dictate to the U.S. what to do in Korea.

appendix

*37

old Qom Hnhhs fD AlaA spoke in behalf of H. J. 53 ** to
feTal die 5 1 ^Amendment of theConstitution which purports to guarantee
civil and political rights to Negroes and all persons Senate not to

^ratify 1 dti/ Genkide^^onvent hin, on the ground ^that^it would impair civil

of” 5S? z

to - a* 1 tot, Ac>, p»pokJ

concentration camps and ^ de ^° rtatl ^ f °p a chareeTthat die “real aim of
equality.”

Selected Bibliography

l„ the Land of Jim Crow, Ray Sprigle, New York, 1949.

An American Dilemma, Gunnar Myrdal and associates, New York, 1944-
Negro Liberation, Harry Haywood, New York, 1948.

Preface to Peasantry, Arthur F. Raper, Chapel Hill, 1936.

American Imperialism, Victor Perlo, New York, 1951-
Southern Exposure, Stetson Kennedy, New York, 1948.

Reconstruction, The Battle for Democracy, James S. Allen, New York, *937
Black Reconstruction, W. E. Burghardt DuBois, New York, i 9 35 -
An Appeal to the World, National Association for the Advancement o o
ored People, New York, 1947-

American Imperialism and White Chauvinism, Herbert Aptheker, Jewish Lift
New York, July, 1950-

American Negro Slave Revolts, Herbert Aptheker, New York, 1943.

To Be Free, Herbert Aptheker, New York, 1948.

To Seo.ro These Ri S hu, The Report of the President, Committee on C„
Rights, New York, 1947.

The Health Status and Health Mutation 0^00, in the Vrnted State
The Journal of Negro Education, Washington, D.C., 1949 -

238 GENOCIDE

Negro Year Book, A Review of Events Affecting Negro Life, 1941-1946,
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.

1949 Negro Handbook Florence Murray, editor, New York, 1950.

Annual Reports for 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950 of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, New York.

A Survey of Major Developments in the Year 1950 With Respect to the Negro
People in the United States, mss., Civil Rights Congress, New York, 1951.

Civil Rights Congress Tells the Story , Los Angeles, 1951.

Si\eston, Hitlerite Crime Against America, William L. Patterson, St. Louis,
1942.

White Paper on Atrocities Against 15 Million Negro Americans, Harry Hay-
wood and Earl Conrad, mss., New York, 1950.

Scottsboro Boy, Earl Conrad, New York, 1950.

Beaten, Killed by Police, Civil Rights Congress pamphlet, New York, 1950.

States* Rights Information and Speakers* Handbook, National States’ Rights
Democrats Campaign Committee, Jackson, Miss., 1948.

Our People Demand Freedom, Paul Robeson and William L. Patterson,
Masses & Mainstream, New York, January, 1951.

The Problem of Violence, American Council on Race Relations, Los Angeles,
1946.

What About Integration? John Pittman, Masses & Mainstream, New York,
February, 1951.

The Trenton Six, by Abner W. Berry, Masses & Mainstream, June, 1951.

Black Metropolis, by Horace Cayton and St. Clair Drake.

Caste, Class and Race in a Southern Town, by John Dollard.

The Negio Family in the United States, by Dr. E. Franklin Frazier.

Hemmed In, by Robert C. Weaver.

Patterns of Negro Segregation, by Dr. Charles S. Johnson.

The Philadelphia Negro, by Dr. W. E. B. DuBois.

fim Crow Guide to the U.S.A., by Stetson Kennedy and Elizabeth Gardner.
(Book To Be Published)

High Treason; the plot against the people by Albert E. Kahn.

-^L^HIS IS the historic Petition presented to the United
Nations in 1951, now reprinted with a Preface by Ossie
Davis and a Foreword by William L. Patterson, the editor of
the Petition. In support of the charge that the racism of
government and its agencies is a crime punishable under the
UN Genocide Convention, the Petition presents specific,
documented evidence of inhuman racist practices in the
United States.

The innumerable beatings, frame-ups, arrests and murders
of black Americans have continued unabated since this
Petition was first presented. Civil rights commissions ap-
pointed by three Presidents have amassed plenty of evidence,
but no adequate remedial measures have been taken by
government. The racist assault is epitomized by the repressive
crusade against the Black Panthers and the murderous attacks
upon black youth in our cities, as well as repressive actions
against all racial minorities.

A new campaign has been launched by the Emergency
Conference Committee, under the co-chairmanship of Ossie
Davis, Dick Gregory and Angie Dickerson, to again present
the Petition to the UN. Among the sponsors are such out-
standing leaders of the black liberation and civil rights move-
ments as Mrs. Coretta Scott King, Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy,
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Huey P. Newton, Bobby
Seale, Arthur Kinoy, A1 Evanoff, Dr. Nathan Wright, and
others.

The Petition may now receive the hearing it deserves.

(Special discounts on quantity orders by organizations)

INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS
381 Park Avenue South, New York, N. Y. 10016

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